Final Distance
by Egg Yolk
Summary: Kaiba Seto gets a rare virus that is not fatal to his body but to his psyche...what is it? How will he cope with it? This fic is now titled!
1. Vivid Colors

Hello, everyone. My name is Youko Fujima....I was in the fanfic business for about three or four years before I "retired" and went into a non- writing stupor of nearly five years (or was that four?). The last fic I wrote was (I think) "The Ghost in My Room," and that was never finished due to lack of reviews. It was probably because of the fact that I never really knew of anywhere to post them up on, so I'll post my fic here and see how I fare. Please be gentle to me^^ Yoroshiku to those who have appeared on the fandom scene in the past five years since I've been gone. And to those who read my fics before.I'm back.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh. My YuGiOh fandom has started only about two weeks ago, so if anyone sees any sort of technical error such as names, places, timeframe, etc, please email me or tell me about it in your reviews so that I may change it!  
  
Chapter One-Vivid Colors Slender fingers twitched a few millimeters above computer keys and Kaiba Seto winced, his brows furrowing, knitting into a tight knot in the middle of his forehead as he leaned over in his chair. A splitting headache ailed him, taking his mind off his work for the fifth time this hour. Remind me to fire my personal physician when first thing in the morning, he whispered through the pounding in his head. Dragging his top desk drawer with a shaking hand, the young CEO pulled out an orange bottle and quickly dumped several pills into his hand, emptying them into his mouth and swallowing without water, his throat having been trained in the past year to take pills in such a rushed manner. He turned back to his screen and noticed that he saw two of it.  
  
Not good.  
  
His mind going hazy, he immediately pressed the speed-dial button on his cell phone and summoned his chauffer. Work needed to be put off now that his eyes were receiving incoherent images like swirling desks and dancing potted plants with spots on them. Within five minutes, he was out the front door of his office building and almost mentally hauling himself onto the seat of the limousine that he had sent for. A warbled "Home" came from his lips and he leaned back onto the seat, his head still swimming for reasons unknown.  
  
What's going on? Kaiba wondered to himself as he stepped through the front door of his house, the tips of his shoes scraping the carpet, contradicting whatever grace he usually held in his stature in the morning.  
  
"Nii-sama, you're home!" Mokuba shouted, running towards his older brother as soon as he heard the door click open. "Nii-sama?" The boy stopped dead as soon as he saw the shape his brother was in. Sure, Seto usually came home looking very tired, occasionally like he was going to pass out, but he never came home looking absolutely wordlessly hideous. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had tremors going through his body almost like he was suffering from epilepsy. A white-knuckled hand was pressed against the wall, the fingers bent and pressing against the powdery whiteness of the wall, threatening to crush it if the wall did not support his wobbling legs. Kaiba Seto looked up from the swirling nuance of sepia, red and black Persian rug beneath his feet and saw his younger brother, who seemed to be floating in space now.  
  
"Mokuba." he groaned, his free hand pressed over his temple where the pain most certainly did not come from, "Go.to.b." Without finishing the last word, Kaiba Seto, perhaps the most intelligent youth of the world in this century, the young and proud owner of Kaiba Corp, fell to the ground without a sound, the thick rug drowning out what would have been a "thud."  
  
To be continued.  
  
I'm sorry about how short it was, but this is just something like an introduction to later chapters, so please review and tell me what you think of it so far. This story will be yaoi as the story progresses. Please be patient with me. Comments go to severus_snape__@hotmail.com. 


	2. Hippo Campus

Dear Me, Myself, and I

Chapter Two--"Hippo Campus"

Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh, and neither do I own Toudo Naoya.  He's from Persona.

              If there was one thing that Yami hated, it was phone calls that came during the dead of the night.  Usually those calls were from either drunkards who thought they were calling their teenage girlfriends, telemarketers from America who dialed one too many digits, or obscene phone calls.  The latter made up the largest fraction of the phone calls, and tonight was just not the night that he wanted to deal with such things, so he hid inside his soul room, letting his aibou nearly smother himself with a pillow before giving one last annoyed groan as the rings continued.

              "Why can't we just get an answering machine?" Yugi wondered aloud as he padded to the phone, scratching his head while he picked up the phone.  "Hello, Turtle Game Shop, how may I—"  He was interrupted by the voice on the other end of the line.

              "Yugi!  Thank god, why didn't you pick up right away?!" Mokuba's voice came though the phone, loud, clear and desperate.  "Mokuba?" Yugi nearly dropped the phone as he pressed the receiver to his ear, his heart suddenly thumping at a bad hunch.  "What's wrong?"

              "It's Seto…" fear crept into Mokuba's voice as he began to babble through choked sobs, "He just came home and fainted and now he's got a really high fever and he won't stop sweating and he's just muttering something in his sleep and…"

              "Mokuba, you need to calm down," Yami took over as soon as he heard the first few words.  "Did you call the ambulance yet?"

              "Yes, and they said they'll be here soon but I'm scared!" Mokuba's voice cried frantically as Yami heard the sound of something like a painful moaning from the young CEO.  This time Mokuba nearly dropped the phone but he caught it with his other hand before it landed on the ground.  "Please come!  Hurry!"  His voice was then drowned out by sirens wailing in the back, pounding of the door and footsteps, and finally the phone clicked and the line went dead.  Yami shot back to his room and pulled on his clothes, then hurried out the door, leaving a note just in case this was going to be long night.

              It was.

_             Clouds…swimming in a sea of blue…  The smell and softness of sand beneath him, he felt like he was floating, walking on such soft ground.  His long white cloak swirled around him in the gentle wind of the sunny day and he turned around, frowning at the fact that he was found._

_              "Seth…"_

_              Who are you…?_

_              The man who had discovered his hiding place smiled in triumph, walking towards him at first, then breaking into a run, but Seto could never see who he was due to the ripple-like mirage that came from the sand in the heat of the Egyptian day._

_              "Seth…!"_

_              Is that my name…?_

_              The man gained distance and reached out his hand._

_              "I…"_

              The noise of the midnight ER was loud enough to wake the dead.  Four nurses pushed Kaiba through the whitewashed halls of the hospital towards the operating room as two doctors ran alongside of them, one holding a clipboard and another holding an IV.  One of the nurses pressed an oxygen mask to the brunette's face, the whooshing of the oxygen from its tank and wheezing into the lungs of Seto frightening Mokuba as he tried to run alongside the stretcher.  But he was pulled away by security that deemed him as "an obstruction to the doctors."  Orders were shouted over the pitiful screams of Mokuba, and footsteps became louder and more frantic as Kaiba's face continued to pale and twist in pain drastically.  

Yami came in just in time to see the tip of Kaiba's head disappear through the closing doors of the operating room and the red light above the chamber door flicker on for the next eight hours.

It seemed like forever until Yami was approached by a young man in a white doctor's lab coat leading Mokuba by the hand.  The younger Kaiba's eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were red from rubbing them too much due to crying.  When Mokuba saw Yami, he broke down again and ran towards the former-pharaoh, his wailing echoing through the empty halls of the hospital.

"Shh…" whispered Yami, his shaky hand running through Mokuba's unkempt black hair, "It's going to be all right…you'll see…"  He then glanced up at the doctor who did not leave them to their privacy, who clutched a folder in his hand.  Yami's eyes went wide at the sullen expression the doctor had on his face.  Please say that it was just fatigue, please…Yami's eyes begged the young doctor, Please don't break this child's heart…

"We had to keep him for a bit of questioning, sir…" the doctor said, pulling a folding chair from beside the hospital benches and sitting down in front of Yami.  Mokuba sat down next to Yami and clutched the Game King's shirt as though this was the only thread that kept him in a safe sanctuary.  "Legal matters," continued the doctor, "May I ask your name, sir?"

"Yami," replied Yami, his crimson eyes never ceasing to give the man in front of him that begging look that suddenly turned into a nearly threatening one.

"I see," the doctor said, seemingly not surprised by the least.  He adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and looked down at his own shoes for a few seconds before looking back up at Yami.  "My name is Toudo Naoya, Yami-san.  Kaiba-san had put you and your family as his emergency contacts as well as guardians should anything happen to him…and so I must disclose his information to you…"  He shifted uneasily in his chair, though not from physical discomfort, it seemed.  "I must remind you, Sir that all information that I tell you must remain with only your family members until the operation is done…or even beyond that…"

          "Get on with it," Yami nearly growled impatiently, his hand still on Mokuba's head, trying to comfort the shaken child however he can.  The young doctor's golden eyes went to Mokuba for a split second and then he nodded, opening the folder he held in his hands.

              "Kaiba-san is not suffering from a mere fatigue or migraine, I'm afraid," Toudo said, almost as though he read Yami's mind.  "Nor can I give you the comfort that he is suffering from a heavy flu."  His face went grim as he looked up into Yami's red eyes, his own gold ones seemingly burning into the pharaoh's soul.  The master of games shuddered despite himself at the pressure he felt from this man that didn't look a day over 20.  

              "Kaiba-san had suffered from a very rare form of a virus that ate away at his hippocampus, causing the headache, and we had to remove it in fear that it may and most likely will devour the rest of his brain."

              "His hippo-what?"

              "Hippocampus.  It is like a switchboard in the brain that converts short-term memory into long-term memory."  

              "What does that mean…?" Yami's voice became shaky now, the sound of all this medical mumbo-jumbo scaring him. He prayed to Ra that it was just the unknown terms that was intimidating him.

              The doctor bit his lip and his right hand reached up to touch one single earring on his left ear before continuing.  "It means that he will no longer be able to create new memories after this operation.  Certain other long term memories he had before may also be lost…"

              At that moment, three minds seemed to click and snap simultaneously.

To be continued…

This fic is not based off of the movie "Memento," for I have never even seen that movie before.  It was inspired by a 12 minute video I saw in psychology class about an Englishman whose name I only know as "Clive" that had the same thing happen to him.  Reviews would be greatly appreciated.


	3. Mausoleum for Memories

Disclaimers: As much as I would like to, I don't own YuGiOh.  I don't own Toudo Naoya, for that matter (he belongs to Persona, but this is not a crossover fic, to say the truth.  He's here for medical reasons, not for subplot reasons.  Don't worry).  Also, for those who are looking for the updates of this fic on FF.net, I'm sorry but I screwed up and got a citation along with an account lockdown until Christmas Eve^^;　 Thanks to those who have reviewed!  It means so very much to me (that's why I'm updating faster than I said I would) ^^

Chapter 3—Mausoleum for Memories

_"Humph, such monsters cannot even entertain the pharaoh…"_

**_Where am I?  It feels like my head is on fire…_**

_Kaiba Seto looked about him, at the ancient palace he mysteriously was placed in, standing amongst a crowd that consisted of six people standing in a half circle around a kneeling man and three who held the criminal down.  _

_"Would you like me to seal this monster away, Pharaoh?" the tallest man of the six spoke, his voice deep and icy, like his blue eyes.  It was then that Kaiba realized that this man, this man donned in royal purple robes and gold, looked so much like him…_

_"Proceed, Seth," the teen on the throne gave the approval.  His eyes were that of fire-spat rubies, matching his unusual dark magenta, black and gold hair that spiked towards the sky.  He held a regal stature that almost didn't fit his slim boyish figure, and yet all but "Seth" bowed to him, not daring to look at even his face._

**_Yami?!  Why am I here?  What is going on?!_**

****

_"Will someone tell me what in the world is going on here?!" Kaiba shouted, whirling around, gesturing at the six standing figures as they watched the criminal was dragged out after a monster was extracted from his body and sealed into a stone tablet.  Desperate, Kaiba advanced towards the High Priest who ordered the stone tablet to be stored away.  _

_As his hand passed through the man and an explainable strange sensation shot through Kaiba so strongly it nearly knocked him off his feet, if he were standing on solid ground at all.  The force of the blow ripped the fiery burn from his skull as it though it was nothing but a gossamer web hovering over him._

_Suddenly dragged into the sky, Kaiba saw lapses of time flash through his eyes as needles of icy coldness that seemed to mix with the heat of the sun hurled itself at him, dragging whatever physical sensation from his mind until he screamed, his cries deafening him._

_"Seth, I…"  The same man from before was running towards him again like something from a infinitely rewinding tape, a tape with no end for the man never seemed to advance close enough towards him.  The same outstretched hand reached towards him, he who was now clad in the same white cloak._

**_I can't hear you…  What do you want to tell me?_**

_"I…"_

_He turned now to face the man, letting the cloak slip off, stopping at the elbows of his bent arms, hands folded neatly in front of his chest.  The man stopped, features undecipherable save for a mouth that seemed to speak an unknown language._

_"Seth…"_

**_How I detest you. _**

A single tear slid down Kaiba Seto's eye and his cobalt eyes flew open, his body jolting out of REM like someone had defribbed him and jolted him back from death.  Next to him, a small form stirred and he identified it as Mokuba from the unkempt black hair that seemed to just jut everywhere.  Sleepy gray eyes rose and connected with Kaiba's blue ones, and they both blinked at the same time before the former widened substantially more vertical and the owner hollered at the top of his lungs.

"DOCTOR!!  COME QUICK HE'S UP!!"

As soon as the ringing in Kaiba's ears subsided, he saw a young man with blue-black hair and gold eyes dressed in the usual doctor's white coat come running into the room, his expression a mix between concern, happiness, and…sympathy?  Behind that plain façade, those gold eyes were hard to read.

"How are you feeling, Kaiba-san?" the doctor asked, pulling one of the metal chairs there for visitors up to the bed and sitting down.

"Where am I?" Kaiba asked, trying to scan his surroundings but noticed that turning his head made him horribly dizzy.

"The hospital, my name is Toudo Naoya," Toudo responded, "You were brought here on the ambulance on account that you had fainted in your own house.  I was your surgeon during the emergency operation."  He took a look at the small squirms that Kaiba was making with his neck in an attempt to move his head and snapped his fingers, stopping the young CEO with the sudden noise.  "I wouldn't suggest you doing that.  You've been in REM for almost a week and a half now and you're still groggy."

**_A week and a half…?  Fainted…?  That's right…  I had a horrible headache and…  And then what…?_**

Grunting a bit of thanks, Kaiba's eyes rolled to the left where he caught a glimpse of his brother's form from the corner of his eye.  "Who are you calling?" he asked, noticing the blinking light of Mokuba's cell phone antenna.

"Yugi…" Mokuba admitted shyly, knowing that the amount of fondness he held for Yugi and Yami was completely opposite of his older brother's.  "They took care of me when you were out, so they have right to know that you're up…"

Scoffing, Kaiba responded with only "Call my secretary when you're done and tell them to FIRE my personal physician.  I want him gone within the hour."  Then he allowed his eyes to travel back to its original position where he stared at the ceiling and the sickly, faded green curtains of his bed barrier as well as wisps of Toudo's blue-black hair that intruded the corner of his eye.

"What you still doing here?" Kaiba asked, annoyed that a complete stranger was sitting there for a time span of over 40 seconds and not speaking at all.  It made him uncomfortable, as though someone was observing him as a scientist would a rat.

"I have to inform you of your condition, Kaiba-san," Toudo explained, patting a manila folder that rested on his lap.

"What condition?  Wasn't it just a migraine?" Kaiba asked, trying to turn his head again to give this young (and most likely incompetent) doctor the death glare of his life. It was hard to do when you can only do it by sliding your eyes so far they're only showing a bit of blue and most of the bloodshot white.

"I'm afraid not," Toudo explained, his expression grim.  "You see…you had a viral infection in your hippocampus, it's a…"

"I know what a hippocampus is, get on with it," came the impatient snarl.

"All right.  See, what happened was that the virus that infected you ate away at your hippocampus, causing your headaches.  When you came in on the ambulance, the X-rays showed that if we did not extract your hippocampus, the other parts of you brain will be afflicted as well…so we had to remove it.  I'm very sorry.  If only your physician had diagnosed it correctly or sooner, then we would have been able to save it, but…"  Toudo went silent and lowered his head, taking the shame of Kaiba's physician's failure as his own.  He looked at Kaiba, who has now turned his head completely towards Mokuba, the impact of the news knocking him out from his grogginess.

"Mokuba, call my secretary and tell her to fire my personal physician.  I want him gone within the hour."

Toudo squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip, his head lowering even more as his hands clutched on his lap.

Mokuba stared at his brother, the cell phone in his hand.  "Nii-sama, you just told me to do that three minutes ago…"

Hearing those words, Kaiba turned back around and gawked incredulously at Toudo, his expression of disbelief soon melting down, or rather, burning up, into one of anger.

"Get out."

"Kaiba-san…"

"GET OUT, BOTH OF YOU!!" he screamed, trying to sit up but the screaming and the motion driving his mind and vision in dizzy circles.

They could do nothing but comply.

To be continued…

Okay, this chapter may be a bit confusing, but it'll be explained more in the later chapters, I hope.  This fic will sometimes seem very repetitive later on because of the fact that Kaiba now needs to have everything repeated to him or he repeats things a lot, but that's for the effect of the condition, cuz it's there and it's very real.  Also, I got parts of the beginning of this chapter from the recent serializations of YuGiOh in the Japanese version of the Weekly JUMP.  It's coming out weekly, not fast enough for the plot to really proceed anywhere, so I'm molding it to suit my own needs, since I don't really have a way of getting Weekly JUMP here.  I got mine from a friend.


	4. Declarative, Procedural, Episodic, and S...

Disclaimer: Still do not own YuGiOh, wish I did, cuz then Kaiba will be a bigger ball of angst than he is now.  Also, Toudo Naoya (and now Sonomura Maki as well) don't belong to me, they belong to Persona, which belongs to ATLUS.  Again, here only for medical reasons, not for subplot reasons.  I hate lots of subplots unless they're done in a good way, which is really rare, and I know I can't do them well enough to pull it off.  This fic is now turning very AU, please forgive me.  Once again, thank you to all who have reviewed!

Chapter Four--Declarative, Procedural, Episodic, and Semantic

Making a turn that opened yet another set of automatic doors, Yami stepped into what he hoped to be the right hallway after several vain attempts at getting to the correct ward in the hospitals.  Damn maze-like places, he thought.  Before he could throw around a few more Egyptian curses in his head, he heard a sound that affirmed to him that this was the right ward, as much as he wished that he didn't heard that sound.

It was the sound of Mokuba's sobbing.

"What happened here?" Yami demanded, advancing towards Mokuba and Toudo, who was trying to comfort the boy.  Upon seeing Yami, Mokuba jumped up and ran towards Yami, collapsing into a sobbing heap in the Pharaoh's arms.  Toudo got off his haunches and walked towards the two of them, his expression grim.  "It's Kaiba-san," Toudo explained as he saw that Mokuba was in no condition to form coherent sentences with his bawling.  "He acted as we thought he would with his memory now stuck in short terms phase.  He forgot what he said within three minutes."  Fingers tightening on Mokuba's shoulders, Yami clenched his teeth and stared at the young doctor.

"What?"

"He can't remember things beyond a certain amount of time, Sir," Toudo repeated in simpler terms for the monarch of the past.

"What do you mean he can't remember?!" Yami retorted, his tone angry from disbelief and denial.

"Sir," Toudo pressed, his face showing no expression except for those golden eyes, "We already have a patient in denial.  Please don't make his guardian in denial as well."  His hand motioned towards Mokuba, who was still pressed against Yami, crying into a hard embrace.

"Did I come at a bad time?" a female voice asked behind the three.  Toudo picked his head up as Yami turned to see where the source of the voice came from.  Walking towards them from the other end of the pristine white hallway was a young woman with short brown hair, dressed in a very monochromic dress of pale beige, gray and brown with dark brown tights and white ankle boots.  She did not don the doctor's robe, but she had a clipboard in her one hand.  For some reason Yami felt at peace when she entered, as though a goddess had just graced the place.  But it was certainly not the sort of comfort a person feels when a lover enters the room, more like a mother.  Her face was pretty, but not exotic except for the small mole under her mouth and her expressive eyes of an orange-brown color.  Yami continued to stare at her as she approached the three and smiled at Toudo, then at Mokuba, and finally Yami.

Toudo gave her a slight bow before going to her side and leading her in front of Yami, who couldn't turn or move that much due to the attached Mokuba, who seemed to cling onto him for comfort.  "This is Sonomura Maki, a friend of mine from high school," Toudo introduced, motioning towards the woman.  "She is a psychotherapist."  Maki bowed and stretched her hand out towards Yami, who took it before he could retort anything about his lack of knowledge about a "psychotherapist."

"I'm here about Kaiba Seto," Maki announced, "I got a call from Naoya-kun last night and I figured that it's best that I examine him before we let him home with you."  Her orange-brown eyes looked at Yami's, the gravity of her tone emphasized by her gaze.  "I suppose I shall have to break it to him again…" she sighed, looking at her watch and her clipboard before going into Kaiba's room.

Kaiba was sitting up in the bed now, his sapphire gaze out the window, studying at something and nothing at the same time.  At the sound of Maki's boots clicking on the tile floor, he turned his bandaged head to look at her.

"Who are you?" he questioned, his tone testing.

"Sonomura Maki," Maki introduced herself with that same smile she used in the hallway that pacified Yami.

"You don't look like a doctor…or a nurse," Kaiba commented, his eyes scanning Maki, his tone suspicious and criticizing.

"I don't like the lab coats," Maki answered, not at all phased by the cold razor sharp words thrown at her.  "Enough small talk," she said when Kaiba gave her a surprised look at the fact that she wasn't cringing under his critiques.  "I'm here to ask you a few questions.  It's a procedure thing."  With those words, she plopped herself down on the folding chair that Toudo dragged in for her.  "Did anyone come in to see you today, Kaiba-kun?" she asked.

"Why is that important?" Kaiba responded with his own question, his eyes floating back to the nothingness he was focusing on outside the window.

"To see if anyone's done any tests on you yet.  And look at me when I'm talking to you."  Her hand waved to motion that Kaiba turn his head back thisaway.  And look at her he did, but it was a look of complete disbelief; disbelief that someone was actually brave or stupid enough to not waver in his verbal attacks and daring to order him around.  Yami himself was surprised that she had not burned to a pile of crisp French-fries under Kaiba's gaze, which has now grown into a fiery murderous look.  Mokuba was more surprised at the fact that his brother had not thrown this woman out yet.

Kaiba growled when he saw that Maki was still looking him square in the eye with a gaze that made him feel like he was nothing but a child in her mind.  She was quite steadfast in her stature.  

"No," he answered despite himself.  "This is the first time I saw anyone today.  No one has come in before."  She nodded and jotted down something on her clipboard as Yami and Toudo exchanged glances behind her and Mokuba looked as though he was going to break down in tears again.

"Uh-huh, now tell me, what is your name?"

"Aren't you supposed to know that?"  A tone that said "what are you, stupid?"

"Procedure stuff."

A sigh.  "Kaiba Seto."

"When's your birthday?"

"October the twenty-fifth.  I fail to see what importance is in this."

"Hush."  That answer drew gasps from Yami and Mokuba who simultaneously thought that this woman must have a very strong death wish.

"Are you mocking me?"

"No.  Just writing.  And you're acting very childish if not rude."

"I am n—"

"Where are your parents?"

A brief pause before a deadly cold monotone answered with: "Dead.  The adoptive father is dead, too."  Maki raised her head and gave him a look that seemed very much like sympathy, if there were a way to explain the face she was wearing.  With that look, the tension in the room seemed to disappear altogether.

"What is it that you do?"

"I'm the CEO of Kaiba Corporations."  Yami had expected him to make a smart remark here about how everyone should know about Kaiba Seto and his work, but he didn't.

"All right…" Maki wrote down a few more notes before looking at her watch and then at the clock.  "My watch seems to be off, Kaiba-kun," she said, pulling off her watch.  "Can you please help me set it to the right time?  I can never seem to set the time on these digital watches."

"If you can't understand the mechanism of these things, then maybe you shouldn't wear them," Kaiba replied.  Yet his words did not drip with the usual stinging malice they always wore, and he took the watch from Maki, helping her reset it without another complaint before handing it back to her.

"Thank you.  That is all I need," Maki said, smiling as she took the watch and placed it around her wrist again.  She then looked at Toudo, Yami and Mokuba, signaling for them to leave the room before she stood up and walked out as well, Kaiba's eyes following them before they blinked and he forgot everything that was said.  He then returned to focusing on the sky outside.

Once they were out of Kaiba's earshot, Maki sighed and bit her lip.  But before she could open her mouth to report her findings, Yami opened his mouth, the words being: "Are you mad, Dr. Sonomura?  Talking to him like that…I'm surprised he didn't jump out of his bed and strangle you!"  Mokuba nodded his agreement, afraid that if he talked to Maki, he would perhaps fall under the same stupor his brother did.

"Oh, she has her ways," Toudo stated, a broad smile across his face.  He chuckled for a while before the smile faded and he glanced at Maki.  "So, what did you find out?"

Maki flipped the pages on her clipboard for a second before sitting down, a sign that Yami and Mokuba should sit as well.  She heaved a sigh before she looked intently at Yami, and then at Mokuba.  "I asked him those questions to see exactly how much he still remembers about himself.  It seems that his declarative memories are still in tact."

Mokuba raised his hand as though he were in a classroom waiting to submit a question to the teacher.  "What are declarative memories?" he asked when Maki glanced at him with a smile.

"They're memories of facts, rules, concepts, and events…they include memories of personally experienced memories, which are called episodic memories, and memories of general knowledge, which are semantic memories," she explained while connecting it to her report.  "That means that he still remembers who he is, what he does, what happened to him before.  There won't be a sign of amnesia except for maybe mundane things that he forgot…  He also still has his procedural memories, it seems, since he remembers how to reset a G-Shock Frogman watch.  He'll know how to do things on his own."

"Then what's the big problem?  Why would he need to go home with me since that's what you've been hinting for the longest time?" Yami interrupted.  He couldn't understand the point behind all this explaining, all this worry, if Kaiba was going to come back normal but just unable to remember things for a few minutes.  So what?

What he said seemed to be the wrong question for Maki suddenly stood up and pull the Pharaoh to his feet, a move that shocked in not only in the strength of such a petite woman, but the sheer anger in her eyes.  "Come here," she ordered.  Suddenly she seemed like the devil and its entire wrath.  Yami could not help but follow her to Kaiba's room once again, stumbling in as she gave him a small push into the room.

"Yami.  What are you doing here?" Kaiba asked, turning his head to examine his rival as Yami approached him in awkward steps due to the push.

"What…?" Yami asked, bewildered, not truly knowing the severity of Kaiba's condition.  "I was just in here…with Dr. Sonomura…"  He pointed at Maki, who walked up behind Yami.

"I've never seen that woman in my life," Kaiba replied, "This is the first time I've seen anyone today.  Where is Mokuba?  I need to know what in the world I'm doing in the hospital."

Yami raised his hand and pointed at Kaiba, his mouth opening and closing like a dying fish on dry land before Maki pulled him out the room.  "You see?" she sounded like she was whispering and hissing at the same time.  Yami realized that she was trying to hold back tears of anguish.  "You see?" she repeated, gathering herself now.  "You can't just leave him alone…It's not a 'so what' situation now.  Can you imagine if one day he decided to take a walk...and in the middle of the streets he forgot where he was and the lights turn green?" 

"He will be killed…" Yuugi whispered, his knees almost buckling as his dark side hid away in the soul room, unable to confront such a truth.

"Yes," Maki concluded, not at all shocked by the sudden switch of minds.  "Yes, he will die if you leave him alone.  That's why he needs your help.  He didn't put you down on his list of emergency contacts for you to let him go off."  She stepped back and looked at the tips of her own boots, suddenly ashamed at her own actions.  "I-I'm sorry.  I got too emotional."  She sighed.  "But will you please help him?  Now that you've understood the situation?"

A mute nod was the only answer she got.

To be continued…

I had at first wanted a lot more to happen in this chapter, but I guess all the medical/psychological stuff got way too long and I had to split the ideas into two different chapters.  Maybe that's for the better, anyway.  Because after this, most of the stuff that happens with Kaiba's condition will be my own thing based on my meager knowledge of medicine and psychology.  And I can also build more on the dreams that haunt Kaiba…  So much to write…I am also planning a prequel to this that I will work on after this whole thing is finished (not sure if anyone would want to read it though).  Also, don't worry about Maki…no one's falling in love with her in this fic.  The only reason why people are acting so strangely around her is because of her "presence."  You would probably have to play Persona to understand the thing behind her "ways."　　Oh, and I realized that the hiragana of Yuugi's name has two u's in it instead of one, so it's a correction on my part, not a typo.  


	5. 30 Second Housemate

Hey everyone!  Sorry about the lack of updates, but I had a guest over for the holidays so I was really occupied^^   Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!  And I noticed that my stories will have strange symbols when displayed in English, that's because I have a Japanese OS on my laptop (where I type these things out), so just change your language viewer to Japanese and it should be fine, but I think that happens only when there are spaces in the story or something like that…  

Also, I have found a title for this fic, and it will be called "Final Distance."  I am now working on the prequel, "Distance," and I may or may not post it depending on people's reactions of the idea.  Please review and tell me about whether or not to post it!  Support means a lot to me, so thanks to everyone who read and reviewed my fic (and thank you for sitting through my scientific mumbo-jumbo for the fourth chapter)!

Disclaimer: Same procedures as before, none of the characters of Yu-Gi-Oh or Persona belong to me.  This fic is now beginning to turn very AU, so please forgive me.

Chapter Five—30-Second Housemate

"I will help him," Yuugi promised Maki, his purple eyes on hers, the look in them seemingly swearing upon his soul.  Maki smiled warmly and nodded.  "Then you have to get ready to move…or clean out some of your rooms.  Whichever one."  Yuugi gave her a questioning look when she said that, his hand going up to his cheek to scratch at it with a bit of uncertainty.  "I'm not sure I quite understand you, doctor…" the boy chuckled nervously.

"Nothing short of a twenty-four hour surveillance will be able to suffice for him," Maki explained, knowing that this was going to be hard for the helper and the patient to adjust to.  "It's best that you move into his house with him…  If he's the CEO of Kaiba Corps, then he should have a big mansion…"  Her eyes drifted away from Yuugi's gaze, almost as though planning something or calculating something.

"And why is that important?" Yami's deep voice boomed into her mind as she was thinking of a way to make this work out.

"Because if you move in with him, it'll make things easier," Maki stated, her orange-brown eyes on Yami's face again.  "First of all, he won't be waking up in a house he doesn't know every morning and going insane about it over and over again…  Also, on some days you can just steer clear of him by hiding in the many rooms of his mansion, provided that he has one…"

"He does."

"Good.  That way he can go about his business without feeling that something is up.  Not that he will really remember…" her pale face lowered again as she looked at her clipboard.  Biting her bottom lip, she glanced up at Yami with a smile that looked as if she were squeezing it out with all her might—a smile that professionals like her used when trying to make everything appear and sound better than it was.  But at a time like this, it was something that was needed, and Yami couldn't help but mirror her smile.  But that smile only flashed for a second before the stoic look on the former Pharaoh's face returned to its place, the smile a bit too cumbersome for him.

"I'll see what I can do about it," he replied, his voice frightening even himself in its lack of resolve compared to Yuugi's.  He suddenly felt ashamed at how cowardly and resentful he sounded and he shook his head.  How could he be weaker than his own hikari?  "I'll help him to my fullest," he corrected, hoping that his voice sounded fuller than it did before.

Maki gave what sounded like a delighted squeal and she clapped her hands together.  "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed with a volume that was just a tad too high for a person in a hospital.  A hush went over her and she looked around, like a child afraid of being caught for spilling milk over the kitchen floors.  Her slender fingers covered her lips and she reprimanded herself under her breath before she continued.  "Thank you," she said, "You don't know how much it means to me as a therapist to have someone willing to help such a person."

"Just tell me what I must do so that I can do my best," Yami assured her.  Maki nodded and flipped at her clip board, nodding a bit before pulling out a red spiral bound notebook.  "Come back for him in about a week.  That should be enough time for you to prepare.  We still have to examine him for a bit, his bandages should be removed soon, and he will be able to be discharged in a week.  Bring your legal guardian along to sign some papers…and…." She waved the red notebook a bit, calling Yami's attention to it.  "I will give him this notebook…it's going to be a diary…  Check it every so often to see what is in there, exactly.  Hopefully it can aide us in helping him with his condition."  Yami reached out and took the notebook, flipping through its empty pages for a few moments before returning it to Maki.

"Thank you…" he said, not sure of what to say to her exactly.  "…for all this help."

"Onegaishimasu," Maki whispered, her smile quivering just a bit.  It was painful watching her smile like that.  "I should be the one thanking you…please…take care of him."

One week later…

Kaiba slipped out of his limo and looked at the mansion in front of him, his eyes narrowing from the sunlight that shot onto his face.  The mansion was washed in the sunlight, yet Kaiba did not feel any warmth when he laid eyes upon this mansion, his stock-like hell house.  He turned to see his chauffer take out his suitcase from the back of the limo before going to help Mokuba out from the backseat.  For some reason, he couldn't grasp where he had been that would have required his suitcase but not his business suit.  Neither could he figure out what he had said to Mokuba on the limo, or where he was coming from.  Shrugging, he figured that he must have returned from a very boring vacation or excursion with Mokuba and had fallen asleep on the car.  But Mokuba seemed to be very affectionate all of a sudden when the young boy immediately ran to Kaiba's side to take hold of his hand and open the double doors with the voice coded password.

Kaiba nearly fainted from the sight that greeted him.

"What are you doing here, Mutou?!" he boomed, his expression showing that nothing short of a very detail explanation with apologies constructed in complete sentences will help Yuugi now.  Sensing the lividness of Kaiba's voice, Yuugi ducked into his soul room, shoving Yami out to deal with him.

"You see, Kaiba…" Yami was at a loss for words as his mind spun in nervousness.  Yuugi had gone through the routine cover-ups that they had to use, but now that his aibou was hiding in the soul room and Kaiba fuming in front of his face, he couldn't think of anything.  "They're here to ask for help on homework, Nii-sama," Mokuba piped up, afraid that a physical fight might ensue between these two.  Kaiba's expression toned down considerably when Mokuba spoke, but it did not release the look of annoyance around his lips and in the blue depths of his eyes. 

"Next time you come, have enough manners to call first," Kaiba hissed as he passed Yami to step into his own house.

"But we did," Yami said.  It was a blatant lie, but it wasn't like Kaiba was going to remember if they did tell him beforehand.

"Must've slipped my mind," Kaiba replied, walking straight upstairs as he looked at his watch.  He must have done so much work or something.  It was only seven-thirty and he was already sleepy.  To his morbid horror, Yami was following upstairs.  "What is it?" he demanded, spinning around to glare at Yami.

"What about homework?" Yami asked.  To say the truth, he could really use Kaiba's help in some of his subjects.  History was one thing, but math and foreign languages were completely beyond him.  His wishes of perhaps better grades sank as Kaiba's eyes narrowed and the reply came hard and cold in the form of "Later, I'm going to sleep.  Wake me up not before nine but not after eleven" and a slam of a door in his face.  

To be continued…

Hopefully that wasn't too stupid and boring…I thought it was a bit too comical?  Or maybe it's just me.  I promise the main plot will develop more in the next chapter!  Also, "Onegaishimasu" is just an extremely polite way of saying "please."


	6. Predictions of the Past

I'm hoping that I won't make this story seem to go too slow or too fast.  I think I need a beta reader or something…  But anyway, this is chapter six, and as I am typing this, I am also working on the prequel to this fic.  Please review and tell me whether or not you would want to have the prequel posted (it is something like a fill in the gaps story for the dreams).

Disclaimers: Don't own anyone from Yu-Gi-Oh, don't own anyone from Persona, either.  They either belong to Takahashi-sensei or ATLUS.  Also, the ratings of this fic will start going up starting this chapter.  This chapter contains some hints at violence.  

Chapter 6—Prediction of the Past

**_Cold...so cold…and so dark.  I feel like vomiting...but I can't even whimper or groan to show my pain.  Where am I?_**

_Kaiba felt as though he was lying on a cold and murky stone floor, something like a dungeon, but much smaller, something the size of a cage or a box.  He heard voices of some unfathomable language, something so alien and so distant.  _

_The sound of chains clanking jolted Kaiba, frightening him for reasons he couldn't put his finger on and he twisted his body, noticing then that he was bound at his wrists and his ankles.  The voices conversed for a few more minutes and he could feel the probe of several gazes on him despite the fact that he couldn't see at all.  Nervousness seemed to settle into the pit of his stomach as large fingers grabbed the filthy cloth that gagged him and ripped it off.  Another hand, one that reeked of riches such as oils and gold, took hold of his cheeks before he could bite and forced his mouth open.  More words were exchanged before the man released his hand on Kaiba's cheeks and the cloth that covered his eyes was removed.  He hissed and looked up, but could only see silhouettes of three figures, one of them considerably shorter than the other two and extending a hand out to him._

_"Don't be afraid," the boy child said to him, his words the only thing that Kaiba understood amongst the cacophony of babbling.  "You belong to me now.  I'll be good to you."  Before he could register the exact meaning of those words, Kaiba felt his hand reach out without his commanding of it and taking hold of that dark, extended hand as though desperate for something.  As soon as his pale skin contacted the dark one, he felt a sudden warmth wash over him, peeling off the coldness and the filth that was on his body minutes ago like a warm mist that blew over his body, caressing his skin.  He didn't want to let go, but soon the hand released its hold and the warmth was gone, replaced by a stiff stabbing coldness that felt like a hard withdrawal from the comforting warmth.  Denying the deprivation of the warmth, Kaiba shut his eyes, hoping that he would wake up enveloped in it again._

_"High Priest Seth," Kaiba heard a cruel voice ring horribly in his head, forcing his eyes open again.  He was standing in the middle of an ancient court, his body bare from head to toe, but it appeared that no one in the court could see that he was there.  Amongst these people, the young CEO noticed that his body was transparent like a ghost and they like bodies of flesh and blood.  Their eyes were focused on a man standing next to Kaiba, a man, to Kaiba's shock, resembled him in almost every way, even in the irrepressible pride and defiance.  _

****

**_It's a dream, isn't it…?  Where have I seen this dream before…?_**

_"High Priest Seth," the voice repeated the name of the man that stood in the middle of the court.  A smug-looking man stood in front of an empty throne, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his eyes jeering in its gaze as he looked at Seth.  "You have been accused of abusing the power and authority as the High Priest to hunt down the ka of innocent people.  How do you plead?"_

_The man addressed as Seth said nothing, and with a flash of gold, Kaiba saw blackness spray over his eyes like ink.  Screams filled his ears, screams of the people around him and his own as hot pain shot up his arms, the roaring fire of that pain searing through his flesh and branding itself deep into his bones.  His screams deafened him and he curled up as the world turned dark again, leaving him to his whimpers._

_"Seth…"_

**_Who is it…?_**

_It was that man again, the man that Kaiba could swear that he had never seen before and yet felt so close to.  The man that seemed to be suspended in time as he ran towards him.  Once again the smell of sand drifted in the air, tickling Kaiba's nose as he watched the man race towards him, the mouth moving in that language that he couldn't decipher._

_"Seth…I…"  The outstretched hand reached for him, and Kaiba extended his hand in response, hoping that this hand will allow him the warmth he was robbed of at the beginning of these visions._

_But the warmth didn't come._

_Before Kaiba could grab hold of the hand, a flash of silver moved across his eyes and he saw red.  Endless red drenched the stirred sand, flying around as though dancing with a fire-colored veil.  Within the crimson, Kaiba saw a glint of gold._

_A cartouche pendant connected to a broken chain._

He felt his heart burst in exploding pain as he woke up, tears streaming from his eyes.

"Kaiba?" a voice asked, drawing a shocked yelp from the bed-ridden brunette.  Reaching for the lamp, Kaiba yanked on the chain that turned on the light and saw that Yami was sitting next to his bed.  "What are you doing here?!" Kaiba demanded, furious that his rival would see him sleeping, and sitting in his house without invitation!

"I came here for help on my homework," Yami answered with a mental sigh, figuring that Kaiba had forgotten about his outburst at the door upon his return from the hospital.  He looked up and noticed the silvery lines on Kaiba's cheeks, the source being the cerulean irises.  "Did you have a nightmare?  You're crying."

Kaiba glared at Yami, then cursed himself for allowing himself to shed tears over such a dream that consisted of…  He stopped as he was wiping his tears.  He couldn't remember the dream, or nightmare, whatever he had when he was sleeping.  "I-I don't remember," the brunette answered, unable to understand why he couldn't remember a single detail about the dream.  "It just all seemed to be familiar…like a taste."  

Yami studied the movement of the other teen under the warm yellow-orange light of the lamp and made a small hum in his throat before nodding.  "It's not that unusual for people to forget what they dream about," he stated, getting up from the chair next to the bed.  "I guess you're probably not in shape to help me with homework tonight."  Kaiba nodded, still dazed.

"May I look at this?  Might be notes."  Yami asked, waving the red spiral-bound notebook that Maki had given to Kaiba a week before.  By the wear around the edges, it looked like Kaiba had actually recorded something in there.  Raising his head, Kaiba peered at the notebook with a peculiar look before he shivered and made a sound like a loud, violent gulp and nodded.  Yami nodded his thanks and walked out of the room, giving no real thought to the reaction Kaiba had towards the notebook.  Once out of the youth's room, the sovereign opened the notebook and all but dropped the notebook at the revelation of its contents, some of them scrawled down in such haste they were almost illegible.

"August 26, 1:58 PM.  A woman named Sonomura Maki came in today and gave me this diary and told me to record whatever is on my mind in here.  All I can think of right now is how awake I feel.  I feel as though I've been sleeping for the longest time and I am truly awake right now."

"August 26, 3:04 PM.  Sonomura Maki, a woman who says that she is a psychotherapist, told me that I have a condition where my memories are now stuck in short term because of the removal of my hippocampus.  I swear I'm going to fire my personal physician.  It feels like I haven't' been awake for longest time.  I can't even remember why I'm in this hospital.  Was I comatose?  And if so, for how long?"

"August 26, 3:20 PM.  I feel truly awake for the first time in my life for some reason.  It feels as though I have been asleep for my whole life."

"August 26, 5:10 PM.  I am truly awake."

"August 26, 7:19 PM.  _I AM TRULY AWAKE."_

__

To be continued…

The diary entries may seem stupid…but that's the way it was in the diary of "Clive" when I saw it on the video.  It's really sad, and it'll get sadder…maybe.  Depends on your threshold of angst, I guess.


	7. Rivalry without Roots

Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh, and neither do I own characters from Persona. I am not making money off of these stories, either.  
  
Chapter 7-Rivalry without Roots  
  
"Here, Seth!" exclaimed a voice as two darkly tanned hands shoved a large clay bowl towards a paler boy. Seth, the paler of the two, put down his papyrus scrolls and glanced at the brown powder in the bowl and then at the one who presented it to him. "What is that?" he questioned, bending down a bit to sniff at the powder-it had a nice smell, not like spices, but a bit strange. The darker boy smiled, sitting back and putting the bowl down between the two of them. The light pouring in a grand shower of gold from behind him made it hard to see his features, but Seth knew who this was, and being near him made him feel warm for some reason; warmer than the sun could make him.  
  
"It's chocolate!" shouted the darker boy, his smile just about the only thing that Seth can make out clearly.  
  
Who are you.?  
  
"Chocolate?" Seth repeated, dumbfounded. The other, darker, shorter boy nodded and dipped one finger into the bowl, covering his index finger with the brown powder and sticking it into his mouth. Following his example, Seth also put his finger into the bowl and placed the brown powder-coated thing into his lips. He grimaced, turning his head violently to the side, spitting. "It tastes horrible!"  
  
A clear, full voice laughed as the boy with the unreadable features nearly rolled on the floor with amusement. "No," he explained, taking out a jar and setting it next to the bowl, "You have to dip your finger in this first and then put it into the powder." Seth glanced at his friend with quizzical suspicion, pouting slightly. "How do I know that's not something that's as bitter as this chocolate that you gave me?" The other boy returned the pout and sighed, opening the jar. "Here," he said, handing the jar to Seth. "It's just honey, something from the Mediterranean. It's sweet. It'll cover the bitterness of the chocolate."  
  
A pale hand reached out for the jar and sank a delicate finger into it before trying the dark powder again. This time a smile rewarded the darker boy.  
  
"See? Better, isn't it?"  
  
I.  
  
I detest you.  
  
Kaiba awoke to the sound of pots and pans clattering downstairs. He sat up on his large canopy bed and sighed, rubbing his temples. "Isn't today Wednesday?" he whispered under his breath. Glancing at the alarm clock next to his bed, he saw that that red letters spelled that it was Saturday. Brows furrowing, Kaiba slid off the bed and got dressed before going downstairs.  
  
"What in god's name are you doing down here?" Kaiba asked as he stepped into the large pantry room. Mokuba was crouched on books that were piled on a chair, trying to reach the highest shelf in the pantry. Apparently he's either lost his balance or his wits and was shaking, his hands gripping the shelf. "Nii-sama." he whimpered helplessly, his eyes almost teary. With a sigh, Kaiba ran his fingers through his silky brown locks of hair before walking over to his little brother and rescuing him from the small, unstable mountain his brother had compiled over the chair. "What are you doing and what were you looking for?"  
  
"Me and Yuugi."  
  
"Yuugi and I," corrected Kaiba as he pulled the large encyclopedias off the chair.  
  
"Yuugi and I are baking some Dutch Cocoa cookies," Mokuba explained, "I was trying to get the cocoa powder." Hearing the desired ingredient, Kaiba reached his long arm out and pulled the bag of cocoa powder from the shelf and set it down on the counter. "If he wanted to bake something so badly," muttered Kaiba as he opened the bag to check if the powder was still fresh or had gone moldy from its lack of use, "He should have come in and gotten it himself. What is he doing here anyway?"  
  
"He doesn't know where everything is," Mokuba said with a hint of protest in his voice. He watched his brother, waiting for him to say that the powder was fine, but the young CEO just stood there, watching the powder. Yuugi, hearing that Kaiba was up, came into the pantry closet to see what was going on.  
  
"You eat it this way."  
  
As though in a daze, Kaiba's hand reached up again and grabbed for the jar of honey that he had bought recently to sweeten his tea with and set it down on the counter, next to the bag of chocolate powder. He opened the jar wordlessly, seemingly oblivious to the others in the room now, and put a finger into the honey jar.  
  
"Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked, surprised at his brother's actions. Seto has never liked sweets.  
  
Not answering, or rather, not hearing the question at all, Kaiba then put his honey-covered index finger into the bag of cocoa powder and placed the coated finger into his lips. A small sound, very much a sigh of content, escaped from Kaiba's throat as he moved his hand to repeat the process.  
  
"Kaiba?" Yami inquired. As much as he has forgotten about his past in Egypt, he remembered that he had once eaten the earliest forms of chocolate this way, hidden away in the room of someone. And right now, the image of Kaiba coating his finger with honey and chocolate imprinted a face of a boy who had looked so much like him 3000 years ago; a boy who had blue eyes, and who had shared many things with him as a child in Egypt.  
  
A boy who grew up and.  
  
Yami's thoughts were interrupted like the way he had intervened Kaiba's own little trance as he heard the tall brunette make a sound very much like a muffled cry of disgust. Kaiba covered his mouth, finally realizing what he had done, feeling the explosion of sweetness on his tongue. He ran to the refrigerator and pulled out a can of black coffee, quickly opening it and downing it, washing away the sticky taste that threatened to linger inside his mouth.  
  
"Gack!" was the first sound he let out, his mind still blurry from the daze he was in moments ago. He felt something lunge inside him and he gulped like mad, his body jolting slightly. What overtook me to do that?! He spluttered for a brief moment before turning around and seeing Yami standing there with a half amused and half surprised look on his face. "What are you doing here?"  
  
Stifling a small laugh, Yami looked at Kaiba, tired of having to go through this again. He figured that maybe a new excuse would be better; besides, Maki had told him to try and keep fresh things inside Kaiba's mind to see if there was any improvement to him. Apparently there was no improvement yet, but Yami wanted to try something out.  
  
"Here to challenge you to a simple duel," Yami answered, throwing the old "help on homework" excuse aside for a change. "No stakes, just a small match. How about it?" His challenge was returned with an incredulous look, and Yami heard something that he thought he would never hear from Kaiba's lips, not even in this state.  
  
"Duel Monsters?" Kaiba asked, wiping his mouth (the taste was staying there for some time). "I know that I own a company for those things, but. I've never held a card before in my life. Never even played. Maybe Mokuba is a better candidate for that." With that, he opened the refrigerator again and took out another can of coffee.  
  
Yami's brows knitted and he advanced towards Kaiba. "What do you mean you've never played before?" he asked, feeling something that seemed to be anger welling up inside him. "You loved that game." Kaiba studied the shorter teen and took another sip of his coffee before answering. "You know, for an educated Pharaoh, you don't understand things very well," Kaiba said.  
  
"Excuse me?" Yami asked. He'd never expected Kaiba to believe the whole thing about the Egyptian past, having always heard the proud CEO call it "unscientific," but now this very person is addressing him as "Pharaoh?" What was this spelling out, anyway? But before Yami could question him more, Kaiba was walking up the stairs to his study, and Yami made a grab for the thin arm, stopping Kaiba in his tracks.  
  
"Just one duel. Even if you don't know the rules."  
  
A heavy sigh and the blue eyes narrowed. "Fine. Just so you know, I do know the rules.but I've never played." The former Pharaoh nodded and guided the two of them to the living room, sitting down opposite of the CEO. Mokuba followed, bringing Kaiba his precious but now forgotten deck. The two shuffled each other's decks before setting them down on their respective sides. "Duel," murmured both voices.  
  
"First move," Yami announced, pulling a card from his hand. "I play the Feral Imp in defense mode, and I lay this card face down. End turn." Kaiba narrowed his eyes in disinterest as his deck, but when he went to draw his first hand, a pair of soft, experienced hands seemed to caress his own, moving them as though he were a mere marionette for their bidding. A sudden coldness washed over him, and his eyes clouded before he made his first move as well. For the next hour, Yami was thrown into confusion; not only by the idea that Kaiba could have forgotten a game that almost meant as much as life to him, but also at the play that was being handled. Kaiba played with most expertise, something that Yami expected from his best rival, but not from a man who had just said "I've never held a card in my life." By the way his opponent was playing; Yami could have sworn that Kaiba had been playing for millennia on end. Kaiba was slapping down tactical yet harsh moves that ate away at Yami's life points, and Yami was too deep in thought to really counter them effectively. His rival had not spoken a word after the initiation of the duel except for his moves, which sounded monotone and lifeless, and his movements were mechanically swift, like he was doing something as routine as breathing.  
  
"Blue Eyes White Dragon, attack mode. Attack Dark Magician," Kaiba declared, tearing Yami away from his observations. Yami made a small grunt of defeat as his life points were completely depleted. "Good game, Kaiba," Yami said, a faint smile crossing his lips. He set his deck down onto the table for now and got up to go and bake those cookies he had planned to do an hour ago before his attention was drawn back to the seated duelist, who was now shuddering.  
  
"Kaiba?"  
  
Pale, delicate hands released their grip on the duel deck, letting the cards scatter onto the table, and the owner of those hands did not answer the call. Instead, he arched his back, his hands hugging his shoulders, and then sliding down to his arms, tightening so much that his knuckles turned a sickly white. Yami ran to Kaiba's side as the brunette's breaths became irregular and he made a strange sound-something like a heavy gulp, inside his throat. It would have been fine if he had made the sound just once, but they continued at an alarming rate, and with each gulping hiccup, Kaiba's body jolted upwards, his head thrown back, and then swinging forward to hang lifelessly again, chin on chest, before repeating again.  
  
"Kaiba!" Yami shouted, his hands gripping Kaiba's shoulders. White, rolled back eyes glared at him as Kaiba turned his head and shoved him away violently, hands now gripping the edge of the table as the convulsions continued. "KAIBA!" Yami screamed, completely at a loss at what he should do. He whirled around quickly, looking at a horrified Mokuba. "Go and call Maki, quickly!" Mokuba nodded and ran the opposite direction, into the kitchen.  
  
"Kaiba!" Yami cried again, trying to summon Kaiba from whatever was making him do this. Then, as though hearing him this time, Kaiba's convulsions stopped as suddenly as they came. His eyes rolled back to reveal the glassy blue irises again and a long hiss escaped his pale, still trembling lips. He released a small groan before he fell over on his side, taking the chair with him onto the ground. Alarmed, Yami crouched down, cursing at his delayed reflexes for not being fast enough to break the other teen's fall. He hoisted Kaiba up from the floor, letting the tall yet surprisingly light form rest his back on his one leg as Yami crouched in something like a genuflect. A hand reached for Kaiba's forehead and tensed as he felt a burning fever.  
  
In his panic, Yami neglected to hear the small, unintelligible words that sprang from Kaiba's quivering lips.  
  
"You betrayed me."  
  
To be continued.  
  
Meh. This chapter is inspired by the video I saw of where Clive, a very talented musician/conductor, said to his wife "I've never seen a sheet of music before in my life" when she told him that he played the piano very well. But when she seated him in front of the piano, he played beautifully as though he had been doing it for his whole life (which he has, he's just forgotten). And when he was done, the same thing happened to him where he went into a convulsion for about a minute. My version is a bit harsher, though. Sorry Kaiba.  
  
As I read before, the Egyptians were the first to have discovered chocolate, but they flavored it with pepper. Seeing as that's too.gross.I made them use honey in here.^^; 


	8. As You Wish

It would seem that FF.net isn't too keen about italics and stuff like that.so I guess I'll have to save these fics in HTML format and then upload them, otherwise some of the effects (such as the dreams) aren't very apparent. On Media Miner they're fine, though. So I would actually suggest people to also go over there and skim through that version a bit.  
  
Disclaimers: Nope, still don't own them, cuz otherwise I wouldn't have to worry about not being able to satisfy my need for doujinshis if I am making the sort of money ATLUS and Takahashi-sensei are making off YuGiOh and Persona.  
  
Chapter 8-As You Wish  
  
The sound of the clock ticking outside in the hallway resounded within Yami's head as he sat by Kaiba's bedroom door. His face was buried inside his hands, his mind going over that nightmarish scene where Kaiba went into those convulsions and collapsed without warning. Yami had carried the ailing teen upstairs to his bedroom, and Maki arrived shortly after. She had been guided by Mokuba to Kaiba's room (otherwise she might have been lost in the large Kaiba mansion for hours), where she ordered Yami out, stating that his presence was making Kaiba's condition worse. The former Pharaoh couldn't argue to that statement, for Kaiba had clutched at Yami's arm tightly one second and then tried to shove him away violently the next, his lips opening and closing at an alarming speed, spilling incoherent words. But as soon as Yami had managed to pry himself from Kaiba, the mutterings ceased. Now he was sitting outside the dark bedroom, waiting for what seemed like forever, for Maki to emerge.  
  
"So," he heard a voice that made his head snap up so quickly he almost gave himself a whiplash. "What happened?" There was only concern in that goddess-like voice, no blame, and no suspicion. She crouched down in front of Yami, who was sitting in such a loose and sprawled position, it was hard to tell whether he was just being rude or that he was extremely tired.  
  
"He went into convulsions.like he was gulping and hiccupping at the same time," Yami whispered, trying not to let the replaying scenes get to him too much. "And then he fainted."  
  
"What was he doing before that?" the young psychotherapist asked, her hand reaching out and lifting Yami's face up by the chin so that he was eye-to- eye with her. Wine red to orange-brown.  
  
"He." Yami paused for a bit, feeling guilty at what he did, forcing Kaiba into that duel. He should have seen during the duel that something was wrong with the young CEO, that he was playing in too mechanical a method and too.trance-like. "I challenged him to a duel, you know, the card game that's so popular now?" He saw that Maki nodded and her eyes encouraged him to continue, and he was thankful that she wasn't interrupting him with her comments or more questions. "And.well.he started playing.I should have noticed.but he played with such fluidness that I didn't want to stop him, it was his favorite game, his life, even. But he had told me that he knew nothing of the game at all." Explanation sufficed, Yami lowered his head again, and this time Maki did not force him back up. She sighed and also sat down on the ground, though not as loosely as Yami.  
  
"Why did such a thing happen.?" Yami choked, the only images that came to his mind now were of that boy that had dueled him 3000 years ago, the same one who had shared that bowl of cocoa powder with him. The face of the boy was matched with Kaiba's, and he couldn't stop the sound of those convulsing gulps from replaying.  
  
"Ever ridden a bike before?" Maki asked. Yami peered up at her, his expression would have been angry if not for the fact that hers was as professional as she was cut out to be. Yami thought about the time when Yuugi had told him to try riding that atrocious contraption called a "bike," saying that once you learn how to ride it, you didn't have to think about how to ride it ever again. But Yami had only skidded for five feet before he ran head-first into a telephone pole, nearly totaling Yuugi's precious bike. He shuddered at the thoughts of that murderous hunk of metal that he refused to get on ever again. Even when Yuugi is riding, he needs to put the Millennium Puzzle into a backpack to assure Yami that he wasn't going to get thrown out like a horse-drawn chariot that just braked suddenly.  
  
"I guess I have." Yami answered slowly, missing the point of Maki's question.  
  
"You know how they say that riding a bike is so easy once you've learned how?" Maki inquired. Yami nodded, remembering what Yuugi had said before. "They say that even if you think you've forgotten how to ride a bike, once you start pedaling again you will be able to do it like it's nothing," she continued. "If Kaiba-san were to have considered the game his life, then it might have been the same thing. He's forgotten that he loved the game, but something inside his mind remembers how to play, the tactics, the rules, everything. But it's like riding a bike.he can still do it without thinking, but this also means that it will now do him more harm than good."  
  
"Why would it?" Yami demanded, his brows furrowing.  
  
"It should have been obvious," Maki answered, her eyes narrowing. "Those convulsions.they happened for a reason. Because Kaiba-san plays the game as simply as anything, and without thought, he's not using any sort of memory.it makes him feel safe. But once the game ended, the safety net that supported him breaks and he's trying to find it.and yet he cannot remember where it was from."  
  
Yami sighed deeply and drew his knees up, raking stiff fingers through his hair, making sure that his nails dug at his scalp. He suddenly felt so tired, like a ton of lead had spontaneously attached itself to his shoulders, weighing him down. "Thank you, Maki," he rasped, though he had almost wished that she hadn't come, being the deliverer of bad news she was now.  
  
"I'm sorry to always have to be the deliverer of bad news," she sighed, as though she had read his mind. "But you have to understand also that it's not your fault. I guess you'll just have to find something else to freshen his mind." Yami nodded, his head bobbing up and down lifelessly, much to the similarity of a bobble-head.  
  
Clapping her hands together suddenly, Maki's eyes sparkled with a sudden realization. "I know, maybe you can take him to a festival!" she suggested, reaching into her purse to pull out a flyer. "This is an end of summer festival that's going to be held in a few days in the city that I live in, Sumaru. It's about a ten minute drive from Domino City, and it might help to take your minds off certain things." she thought for a second before she added: ".and for the sake of that little boy that lead me around the house." Yami accepted the flyer and looked at the brightly printed banner, the words practically shouting in excitement with its hot, bold colors, announcing the place and time of the festival as well as activities that were planned. For some reason, though, this flyer only made Yami's heart sink a bit more. Sure, the idea of taking Kaiba and Mokuba out for some end of summer excursion was nice, but what's the point of it when the one person they were doing this for was going to forget about it anyway? It all seemed so meaningless now.  
  
Glancing at her watch, Maki stood up and began to search for her way out of the house. "I should be going now," she informed Yami, who was still lost in his thoughts. "You can go in and see him if you'd like.he's sleeping now. And.please don't give up."  
  
Yami glimpsed up at her and gave her a weak smile, a token of thanks for her supportive optimism and coming on such short notice. "How much do I owe you?" he called as he stood up, suddenly remember that in this century, doctors needed to be paid even after hours when they answer "house calls."  
  
"Nothing except for you to come to that festival," Maki said, stopping at the end of the hall.  
  
"At least let me call a cab for you," Yami insisted, upbraiding himself abruptly that he had been so rude to her by being drowned in his own thoughts.  
  
"Don't worry," she rejected with a smile. "I can fly." With that, she descended the stairs, her hand waving, signaling for Yami to go into the room to see Kaiba. Yami looked at her back as she descended the stairs and then walked back to the door that he was shoved out of just moments ago, opening it to go in.  
  
It seemed that Maki had been courteous enough to draw the shades completely so that the noontime sun didn't disturb Kaiba's deep slumber. The taller teen was tucked securely under his blankets on his canopy bed, but he was so pale, and his brows so tightly knitted it was hard to decipher whether he was really sleeping or in some sort of horrible hypnosis.  
  
"Seth." Yami whispered before he realized that he had just said that name. He covered his mouth immediately and frowned. Where did that name come from? The boy that kept showing up in his mind now that Kaiba was like this? The same boy whose face he kept matching up to Kaiba's? The former Pharaoh was at a loss at this point himself. Being locked in that Millennium Puzzle for the past three millennia due to reasons unknown had been a real wreck to his memories, but Yami figured that at least he was in a better state than Kaiba. But what was that name.?  
  
Pulling up a chair next to the bed, Yami seated himself down and contented with just staring at Kaiba's face, which was now not as contorted in pain as it was when he first entered the room, but still catastrophically pale, tinted by only a smudge of pink on the cheeks due to the subsiding fever. Curious, Yami reached his hand out and brushed away the obstructing bangs on Kaiba's forehead and then caressed the hot skin underneath, sliding down a bit to cup at the smooth cheek. It was still hot, but not as seething as it was when he had carried Kaiba upstairs.  
  
A small, unintelligible murmur seeped from Kaiba's lips and the young man pressed his face against Yami's palm, a hand wiggling out from under the blankets to grab hold of Yami's wrist.  
  
"Yami."  
  
The sound of skin against stone rang through the thick, hot summer air as the dark-skinned boy chased his friend down the long flight of stairs leading to the gate of the palace.  
  
"What do you mean you'll get the Nile to flood, Seth?" the shorter boy demanded, pulling his long purple cape around him so that he won't trip over them in his pursue of Seth.  
  
"Exactly as I meant it by the words I said," Seth answered, his steps growing faster, daring his pursuer to catch up to him and try to stop him.  
  
Turn around.I want to see his face.who is he?  
  
"What you speak is utter madness!" protested the not-yet matured voice. "To make the Nile flood.when we've been in a draught for the past few months and the annual flooding weeks overdue!"  
  
"Which is exactly why I'm doing this," replied the other, walking straight out of the gates of the palace despite the many warnings the Pharaoh had given him about not leaving the palace without a guard-mainly for his own safety for his sharply contrasting features of pale skin and blue eyes. Hesitant, the other boy pulled his purple cape over his quite distinguishable features and continued to follow Seth, his chase having slowed to nothing more than a following pace. "You've heard the Pharaoh, my friend," Seth continued, "If the Nile doesn't flood soon, we may have to ration food, and there's no question that many people will starve themselves trying to give the rations to their children. Is THAT what you want?" He whirled around, his long hems of his apprentice garb drawing up the sand beneath his feet. The other's face was covered by the large purple cape, but his movements were still perceivable. Seeing his friend give a mute answer with the shaking of his head, Seth turned back around and walked into the Nile River, pulling off his beige robe in the process.  
  
"What are you doing, Seth?!" the caped form shouted after him. "You do not have the magical abilities to do such complicated magic yet!"  
  
"Watch me."  
  
Watch me.I shall grant you every wish that you want. Because I.I am.  
  
Wetness fell upon Seth's hand and he looked at the tips of his fingers. He suddenly found himself not in the Nile River anymore, but at the back gates of the palace. Someone was gripping his robes as though trying to drag him down to death or to gain support from falling. As soon as Seth saw the red on the tips of his fingers, he figured it was perhaps more of the former than the latter.  
  
I am. I.am.  
  
The always blurry face looked up and his bloodied lips moved to form the unmistakable word of accusation.  
  
"Traitor."  
  
Yami winced and gave out a startled yelp of pain as he felt the grip around his hand tighten dramatically and he pulled away as he heard his knuckles being cracked under the steely grip. How can someone this sick be this strong?! And.he had fallen asleep next to Kaiba, just sitting there with his head on the bed since he didn't have the heart to pull his hand away before. Had he seen a dream that Kaiba was having.? It all felt so nostalgic. Before he can ponder this question, however, Yami saw the blue eyes of the previously slumbering dragon tamer fly open and stare at him.  
  
"Good afternoon," Yami greeted.  
  
"I.what happened.?" Kaiba asked, sitting up, feeling woozy.  
  
"You caught a bug flying around and collapsed from a fever," Yami lied. He didn't see the point of telling the truth to Kaiba now that the man can't even remember what he drank for breakfast.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"So." Yami started, feeling a bit awkward, just sitting there next to Kaiba, who was sitting up now, but still in bed and with all of his shirt buttons undone, no less. He threw away that mysterious jab of jealousy towards Maki (who was most likely the culprit) to concentrate on mustering his invitation. "Wanna go to a temple festival?"  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"A temple festival. For the end of summer," Yami explained, handing Kaiba the flyer, half expecting him to either crumple it up or rip it apart and throw it in his face. But instead, the young CEO studied the flyer and nodded. "Why not," Kaiba agreed mildly, "Mokuba might want to go, and it's not like I have work that day." He handed the sheet back to Yami, who took it with stiff hands, still clammy from surprise and the pain one had endured minutes ago.  
  
"Yeah.so.I guess.we'll go together then," Yami stammered, unsure of how to handle Kaiba like this. It felt like the calm before a storm. Kaiba nodded and looked at Yami, his eyes following the sovereign as he stood from his chair and walked out from the room. What Kaiba said next fell upon deaf ears as the heavy oak door was closed behind Yami.  
  
"As long as it's your wish, my prince.I shall grant whatever wish you want." His eyes were the color of smoked blue glass as he said this.  
  
Because I am.I.  
  
To be continued.  
  
At first I had intended for this chapter to be a bit longer, but then I thought that the transition wouldn't fit too well within a chapter instead of between two chapters, so that will have to wait. I think it's already quite obvious who the mysterious boy is in Kaiba's dreams, but I'm still trying as hard as possible to not reveal his face or any pronouns that would really give him away. But I think anyone who's also following the prequel to this story would have picked it up already, too. Oh well.I guess that just adds to the plot? The next chapter is kind of a reminisce of my lost childhood.with an added twist. 


	9. Summer Cloudburst

I've been getting a lot of reviews for this story, thank you all so very much! I hope that I won't fall asleep again the next time I say I am going to update a chapter! Your reviews all mean very, very much to me and it's what's letting this story really write itself. Thank you all for putting up with the bad encoding that is on FF.net, I'm very sorry about those. As of now, I'm looking at my outline for this story and it's spanning longer than I had anticipated (I was thinking it'll only last five chapters at first!), so I hope you'll all be patient now that school has started up for me and follow me through this story as well as the prequel^^  
  
Disclaimers: Don't own them, none of them (whether it's YGO or Persona).otherwise I would be really rich and paying several million dollars in taxes every year.  
  
Chapter 9-Summer Cloudburst  
  
Mokuba wiggled as he watched Seto tie the sash around his yukata, the tightness making him uncomfortable, and Seto loosened it just a bit. Standing back, Seto looked at his younger brother in the yukata he had chosen for him-one that was a dark navy with pale blue maple leaves printed at the hems and the end of the long sleeves. Seto himself was dressed in a white one that was such a pale sheet white it seemed to glow, and the print of the river and lotus on his yukata was a blurred baby blue, causing it to look very much alive on the fabric. The yukata also emphasized his blue eyes quite well, and that was the reason why Mokuba, Yuugi and Yami all agreed that he should wear that to the end of summer festival. Yami wore the yukata Yuugi had chosen for the both of them-one that was completely black with a maroon trim. It was a plain little thing, but when Yami tried it on, he seemed quite regal in its formality.  
  
For the past week, Kaiba had to be constantly reminded that they were attending an end of the summer festival, even though the reminding was quite futile considering his condition. But he never once showed any discontent about going to the festival, he always agreed, saying that it might be a good thing for Mokuba.  
  
"So, what do you think?" Yami asked, walking into Mokuba's room sporting his black yukata. It was strange seeing him wearing something other than his usual tight-fitting leather ensemble, and Mokuba smiled brightly. Kaiba, however, walked right over to Yami and undid his sash, causing the Pharaoh to blush and stagger back.  
  
"Wh-what are you doing, Kaiba?!" he shouted, quite offended.  
  
"Your yukata is on the wrong way," Kaiba explained, his expression plain as he reached out and placed the right side of the yukata under the left. "You're wearing it the way they would put spirit clothes on the dead. And as far as I know, you're not due for embalmment in this lifetime yet." Finishing his clarification, he fastened the gold-yellow sash around Yami's waist and nodded in satisfaction. "You would think that after living in Japan for so long you would know," Kaiba added, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he gave Yami a smug smile. Yami looked away, pouting slightly as he adjusted his tightened sash. "Whatever," he retorted.  
  
"You look very majestic in that, Yami," Mokuba commented, looking up at Yami. The Pharaoh smiled and ruffled the boy's hair when Kaiba had his back turned to put away the boxes the yukatas were stored in. Checking his watch, Yami turned to open Mokuba's room door.  
  
"We should be going now," he announced, looking at Kaiba. "Maki said that the buses to Sumaru come to Domino City once every twenty minutes."  
  
"I still don't see why we can't take the limo," Kaiba muttered, turning off the bedside lamp.  
  
"It'll cause too much of a distraction," Yami argued. "We're going to a temple festival, not the Oscars." Kaiba only scoffed and shrugged, then took Mokuba's hand as he lead the boy downstairs, Yami following as the three of them walked in their wooden clogs to the bus station that would take them to the Rengedai ward of Sumaru City. To say the truth, Kaiba had never remembered being in that city. The whole place just seemed a bit too strange for him for some reason, having seen a photo of the place when he was young. The photo was one that was taken from a helicopter, an overhead photo that showed the city that looked like a ying-yang with the way its highways are constructed. For some reason, he never saw the need to go there, and now he wondered why he was on the ten minute bus ride there.  
  
Once they were there, it wasn't that hard to see where the festival was since it seemed to be pouring out onto the streets despite the fact that it was supposed to have been just a temple festival. Excited, Yuugi exited his soul room to take over the body for the night as he grabbed Kaiba's hand and led him into the swirling crowd, Kaiba taking hold of Mokuba's hand as he was being churned into the mass of people. The three of them snaked through the crowd, intent on finding the source of it so that they can work their way down the stands and the games, as well as Maki, who said that she'll be waiting by the temple. Yuugi smiled, delighted that he was told about this festival, and otherwise he would have just been going to the ones held at Domino, which were much smaller in scale than this one. His wooden clogs clicked on the ground as he led a slightly hesitant Kaiba along, the crowd bumping into them occasionally in their mingling dance of assembly.  
  
Finally reaching the source of the festival, Yuugi was surprised to see that the temple was really quite small; not at all what he had expected to be able to hold such a grand festival. Glancing around, Yuugi released Kaiba's hand as he searched for Maki, whom he soon found standing next to the temple's sacred tree, waving at the three of them. "Maki-san!" Yuugi shouted, turning to urge Kaiba and Mokuba to follow him before he ran towards the psychotherapist.  
  
"It's nice to see you here," Maki said, smiling. She was wearing a yukata that was such a pale pink it seemed more like it was supposed to be white with pink undertones. Apparently the yukata was not a traditional one for it had a few strawberries stitched onto the hems. Maki beamed at Kaiba as he walked over and bowed to her slightly, apparently thinking that this was their first meeting. Mokuba, however, shook her hand with much enthusiasm, glad to have found her so quickly in a crowd this large. Next to Maki, there was Toudo Naoya, who was dressed in a white yukata with green undertones and lotus leaves printed on them. Several other people, whom Yuugi couldn't name at the moment also crowded around Maki, obviously close friends by the way they were knitted together, their stances almost circling Toudo, as though he were the leader.  
  
"I'm so glad you could make it," Toudo said, fanning him with a yellow fan. It seemed that he was quite funned out already, his smile fatigued and his form leaning on a tall man behind him who had a cross scar on his forehead. The man didn't seem to mind Toudo leaning on him, however, even though the first impression he gave Kaiba was one of a cold and rough man in his pure black yukata. In his hand, the muscular man held what looked like battle trophies Toudo had won from the stands-water balloons, stuffed animals, masks, goldfish, and the like. "This is Kido Reiji," Toudo introduced, motioning at the tall man behind him. "He's my.housemate." The pause he gave was a bit too obvious and Kaiba raised his eyebrow in suspicion as Maki giggled and both Yuugi and Mokuba cocked their heads like a puppy who just heard a strange sound.  
  
"Let me introduce you," Maki stated, turning to face the three. "This is Kido, Naoya, Nanjo, Eriko, Yukino, Uesugi, Maya, Ulala, Saga, and the Suou brothers Katsuya and Tatsuya." As she named them, the crowd's members waved and smiled, some of them very friendly, and others were a bit aloof, but still in the right place.  
  
"A lot of friends you have there," Kaiba commented, crossing his arms. "Is it just me, or does Toudo look especially young.?"  
  
"There are more who are too busy tonight," Maki teased. She seemed to have either not heard the CEO's question over the clamor, or she ignored it completely. Then she noticed the eager looks that Yuugi and Mokuba were giving at the game stands down the steps of the temple. "Well, I guess I won't keep you. Have fun!" Cheering, Yuugi and Mokuba raced down the stone steps as quickly as their clog-wearing feet can carry them as Kaiba sighed and followed them. Toudo smiled and stood up straight, steadying himself against Reiji for a few moments as he followed Kaiba. "Mind if I joined you?" he asked. Kaiba shook his head but walked a bit faster, joining his brother's side as he crouched down in front of a goldfish stand. He purchased a round of thin paper scoopers for Yuugi and Mokuba, but then another for himself when he decided that he should do something as long as he was crouched there. Mokuba laughed as Yuugi's goldfish flopped on the paper, breaking it and returning to its moment of freedom before Kaiba scooped it up into his small plastic basin. In the end, Yuugi got three from two scoopers and both Mokuba and Kaiba walked away with one, deciding not to play too long there. They hit the water balloon stand next, and Kaiba managed to get two water balloons for both Yuugi and Mokuba since neither of them got any because their rubber band rope detached with their nervous pulls. As they walked along, Yuugi and Mokuba's each individual sweet tooth was satisfied with small snacks such as cotton candy, marble soda, wheat sugar on a stick that was molded into a cartoon character's face, and other little goodies. Kaiba contented himself to a barbecued squid, and then something called "sugar gourds," which were strawberries on a stick covered in hardened wheat candy. He smiled as Mokuba pulled his hand along through the crowds of people, trying to play every game every stand had to offer in the festival and to beat Yuugi in all of them at the same time. Not remembering when was the last time he had so much fun at such leisure, Kaiba allowed the two to splurge themselves to their hearts' content, seeing no harm in the small innocent activities that the large gala had to offer. As they wound down the streets of the festival, they approached a park that also had a few stands in there, but due to the late hours, they seemed to be cleaning up.  
  
"Nii-sama, I want to ride those!" Mokuba shouted, pointing his finger at a circle of ponies that were giving children rides.  
  
"Aren't you a bit old to be riding those?" Kaiba teased. But it was a bit true; most of the children on those ponies were no more than eight years old, even though Mokuba's size was about theirs.  
  
"Let him ride it, it won't do any harm," Toudo chimed in, his gold eyes twinkling in the red paper lanterns strung overhead in the trees. "Besides, the festival is about to clean up for the fireworks. This is probably the last round." Kaiba shot him a look that told him to mind his own business, but then he looked down at the incessantly tugging boy and sighed. The puppy eyes that Mokuba was giving him always seemed to do the trick, and he pulled out a few coins to give to the old man who was leading the ponies. Mokuba cheered and hopped onto one of the ponies, settling onto its saddle as the ponies were lead in a circle around the darkening park. Yuugi moved closer to Kaiba to make way for the ponies as they passed them, Mokuba waving to them on his way onwards. Toudo shuddered a bit even though it was humidly hot, and moved towards the two.  
  
"Are those cherry trees?" Yuugi asked, pointing at the trees that were planted at the far end of the park, the opening between them letting the moon's face into view. The trees' leaves seemed to frame the sky and the full moon of the clear, cloudless summer night.  
  
"Yes," Toudo said, "They are quite majestic when they bloom." Kaiba looked at those trees, at how their leaves appeared to be a teal color under the strangely large moon. He saw a large red jungle gym by the trees, fashioned to the shape of a plane. His cerulean eyes squinted at the sight, for jungle gyms like those were rare.  
  
"Did you know.?" his strangely boyish voice said over the drumming of the festival announcing the ending. "That this park has a legend.?" His eyes turned so slowly in their sockets as he looked at Yuugi and Kaiba that they seemed to leave a trail of gold in the blue and red light of the park. Yuugi shook his head, but his expression was tell-tale, showing that he was interested and curious. Toudo smiled and reached over, patting Yuugi's head as he laughed delightedly, like an old man whose curious grandchild would never stop asking questions.  
  
"They say that.couples who come on dates here in Honmaru Park will end up breaking apart in the most dramatic way," Toudo said, chuckling a bit, as though amused. Yuugi's eyes widened in fascination as Kaiba scoffed. "How unscientific," commented the young businessman. The good doctor only smiled and walked towards the returning ponies, lifting Mokuba off as the ponies came to a stop and then were led off to their transporting car as soon as all the children were picked up. He then smiled and whispered something in Mokuba's ear, causing the boy to squeal in enthusiasm, hopping up and down in his heavy wooden clogs. The boy then ran back, with Toudo following him.  
  
"Nii-sama, Dr. Toudo told me that he lives in a broken down factory and there are monsters in there, can I go and stay the night with him?!" Mokuba shouted, tugging eagerly on Kaiba's yukata sleeves.  
  
"Excuse me?" Kaiba whispered, his voice almost a hiss as he glared up at Toudo, who smiled in his general direction. "Please don't be stuffing junk into my brother's head. Number one, how can you possibly live in a broken down factory."  
  
"Avoids paying taxes and rent. Reiji lives there with me, as well," Toudo answered.  
  
".and how can you say there are monsters in there? How can you prove it?" Kaiba asked, grinding out his words.  
  
"It can be proved when Mokuba is dropped off at your house tomorrow morning and he tells you what he's seen," Toudo countered, his voice cool and level, but the strange smile never leaving his lips. This was the first time Yuugi as ever seen so much expression on the doctor's face, but the smile was very different from Maki's. As Maki's smile is like a goddess', Toudo's felt like a seducer's. Finally, Kaiba sighed and threw his hands in the air as Mokuba continued his whining and begging. "Fine!" he shouted, exasperated, "Just so you know, he MUST be dropped off at my front door no later than 9AM tomorrow morning, and if he returns with any scratch on him, you'll be answering to me!" Toudo's smile grew wider at the answer and he bowed in thanks, then motioned the three of them towards him. "Then let me show you to the bus station. I live in the Konan ward, and there is a beautiful beach there I'm sure that you would like to see." Together, the group walked to the bus station as the clamoring of the festival crowd began to die down and a majority of the people left began to walk towards the Araya temple.  
  
The Konan ward was about a five minute bus ride from Rengedai, and on the way, Kaiba could smell the scent of the ocean from the window of the bus. Mokuba was sleeping on the way there, his head resting against Kaiba's lap, too pooped from the festival. Yuugi, also exhausted, decided to switch with Yami, going back into his soul room for a good night's sleep as Yami took over. Soon, the bus came to a stop and the four of them got off at the stop in front of a majestic beach.  
  
"Welcome to Ebisu Beach," Toudo announced. Mokuba awoke on Kaiba's back and stared out at the surface of the ocean, which glittered a beautiful silver and blue, bathed under the diamond moonlight. Even Kaiba had to admit being impressed by how clean the beach was for a city that was this developed. To get a better look, Mokuba hopped off from the piggy back ride that Kaiba was giving him and kicked at the ebbing tide a bit, laughing as the cool water touched his feet, chilling his feet, which had been heated on the hot summer sand. Smiling, Toudo let him play for a bit longer before going to the boy and taking by the hand. "Let's go then," he whispered, leading the boy away. Mokuba waved goodbye for the night to his older brother as Kaiba's blue eyes followed them before they disappeared into the night.  
  
Yami suddenly stuck out his tongue after the two left, making a small noise of discomfort that brought Kaiba's attention to him. Kaiba's one eyebrow lifted in amusement that such a serious figure would do something so comical.  
  
"It's hot," Yami complained, pulling at his yukata hem.  
  
"Of course it's hot," Kaiba retorted, "It's hotter in Egypt, isn't it?"  
  
"Not like this," the Pharaoh muttered, "It's sticky here. And the ocean makes it stickier. I wish it would rain a bit or something."  
  
The answer he got for that comment wasn't something Yami had expected. "As you wish," a silky voice said. And before Yami could react, he saw Kaiba walk towards the ocean, kicking off his wooden clogs and stepping into the warm waves, and then to the chilly regions until he was waist high in water. He pulled his sash off and stripped himself of his white yukata, discarding them on the waters, letting the articles of clothing be brought back to the sand by the waves.  
  
"Kaiba, what are you doing?" Yami shouted. But he could feel no intention, whether by physical reflex or some distant memory, to stop Kaiba from what he was doing.  
  
Closing his eyes, Kaiba placed his palms onto the surface of the ocean waters that glistened majestically in its magnificence, kissed by the moonlight brilliance. He then lifted his hands and a strange melody flowed from his lips.  
  
"Tihn oh oh, beh loh ho. A gohn a gya tei tao beh gu ou."  
  
Before Yami can process what the other boy had sung, he felt rain droplets upon his eyelashes, and then he found himself stuck in a cloudburst. Kaiba, or rather, someone who probably took over Kaiba's body, standing in the ocean and causing the rain, turned and smiled at him, seemingly satisfied. But then he lowered his head, gripping his shoulders as though he were freezing. Noticing the sudden change, Yami grabbed the white yukata that was discarded and ran towards Kaiba, wrapping the clothing around Kaiba's shoulders.  
  
"It's Seth, isn't it?!" he shouted, looking into Kaiba's face. "You're Seth, aren't you?!" He didn't know exactly where he made the connection with that name, but right now it seemed like the right one to say.  
  
"The sky is darkly black, it's going to rain. Grandpa took a shovel to get some taros. Dig, dig, dig. He dug up an eel instead. Hey~now that's really interesting."  
  
Steady hands gripped at the shivering shoulders, and Yami shook Kaiba to urge the other to look at him. "You're Seth, aren't you?!" he demanded again, the name now not as unfamiliar as it was a second ago. When the eyes looked up at him again, Yami drew in a sharp breath at the cloudiness within the blue depths, and yet in some distance corner they shimmered like the sea beneath them.  
  
"Will you kill me when I become myself?" whispered the choked voice.  
  
"What?" Yami asked, confused. He felt the rain pummel against them, but something else was there, something that was hot and wet, something that fell upon his face and his arms. He looked up and realized the mixture of rain and tears on Kaiba's face.  
  
"Will you kill me in this lifetime?" Kaiba asked again, leaning into Yami, his face burying into the Pharaoh's shoulder, his hands now gripping the black material that Yami wore, pulling it from where it stuck to Yami's back like a second skin. "Will you?"  
  
"I.I won't," Yami stammered, not sure of what to say.  
  
"Please.don't." Kaiba whimpered before he went slack within Yami's embrace.  
  
The fireworks exploded in the distance as the rain stopped.  
  
To be continued.  
  
Yeah. That was a weird chapter, but it will all be explained soon, I hope. Thank you all for your reviews!  
  
The song that Kaiba sang in here was actually a children's song that I learned from my mom that's in Formosan. It's not really Egyptian, but I really like it. 


	10. Under a Spreading Chestnut Tree

Youko.is.sleepy. But I will try and update this fic anyway, even though I am currently as sleepy as hell (it is 1:29AM right now). Once again, thank you all so much for your generous reviews! I am sorry once again for the horrible encoding of my fics, and also at the fact that.well, according to a friend of mine, my chapters are short and there are too many. I hope no one gets discouraged by them, but that's the only way I can make the transition between time cuz I don't like to do it within chapters too much.  
  
Quite amazingly (?), it would seem that almost all of you think that Naoya is very suspicious.  
  
Naoya: *smiles* Well now.  
  
Disclaimers: Not mine, never was never will be. Otherwise I wouldn't have to get so upset over the fact that I have practically no doujinshis. Also, the rating for this fic is upped again due to a small yaoi lime scene.  
  
Chapter 10-Under A Spreading Chestnut Tree (I Sold You and You Sold Me)  
  
"Thank Ra you've returned," a rich voice whispered, his words echoing through the small room even though it was no more than a mutter.  
  
"I've missed you."  
  
Am I here.again.?  
  
Kaiba peeled his eyes open just a bit and blinked before focusing them, not that there was really anything to focus on, the darkness being so brutally invasive on his eyes. He shuddered in the iciness of the dark and sat up, his ears keen, searching for the voices that seemed to haunt him, even though he felt no memory of them ever being in his mind before.  
  
The sound of a scroll being thrown onto a table and unrolled sounded within Kaiba's ears, and he whipped his head around to seek out the source of the sound. A warm light dawned upon his vision and he saw a room that was musky with the smell of papyrus, dust floating in the air so thick it was a wonder people didn't suffocate in there. A young man stood there, facing an older one, as he talked with an excited voice. The young man's stretched finger ran across the papyrus, which, on closer inspection, seemed to be a blueprint of some structure. Arms flew in the hot, heavy air as the youth gestured with his hands, discontent with how flat the blueprint was and now resorting to signaling with his large, strong hands. The distance he made with his hands emphasized the size he wanted this thing, and the older man smiled as he jotted down notes.  
  
"Build it to look like the bones of a bird," the young man's voice broke through the densely dusted air, his hands making a charade of the shape of wings. "Big enough for him to stand on.and put the eye of Horus in the middle of the structure, it will signify the flight of the eye of the great god Horus.and it must face the ocean and the setting sun at the same time, if possible. I want it painted red." The old scribe didn't answer, but it was apparent that he was as excited about this project as his companion was. His pen flew at amazing speeds over the papyrus, jotting down the notes as fast as they were being dictated.  
  
Kaiba watched the two of them as they continued to converse in a language that he knew he have never learned before but understood full well. He strained to see the face of the younger man, but the teen's face was nothing but a dark silhouette in the bright beige light that shone in from a small window dug into the wall. The older man, however, was facing the light and Kaiba could see his face clearly, that is, the parts of his face that wasn't covered up. The old man's face was almost completely veiled under a white mask, and a hat covered the majority of his forehead. Large, wise eyes in the shape of half circles beamed on the wrinkled face, and Kaiba furrowed his brows at the familiarity of those eyes.  
  
I have seen them before.where.?  
  
With a distinct whoosh, Kaiba watched as the scene before him was pulled away into the darkness, turning from a setting into a movie scene into a photo and then finally, nothing but a speck in the darkness. The young CEO's hand reached out for that warm scene a bit too late, and it was long gone before he had registered its absence. Heat then fell upon his back, and sooner than he realized that he was dressed in a tunic with a pale, glowing white cloak around him did he pull it around his shoulders to prevent from burning under the hot sun. His sandaled feet were sinking slightly into the sand, and he can smell the scent of the ocean spray behind him. A part of his arm felt hotter than the other parts, and it was when the heat finally reached his mind that he realized he was leaning against something red and metallic, structured like bones. In the distance, Kaiba could see a person run up to him. Once again, the person was saying unintelligible words, calling a name he never recalled responding to. Those outstretched hands reached out in a motion that Kaiba saw as an invitation to an embrace, and he stood up straight, no longer leaning against the structure.  
  
However, the outstretched hands were not any sort of invitation to an embrace. Instead, they clutched at Kaiba's tunic with such rage and intensity, it made him step back. Those hands, nonetheless, continued to grip at his tunic, pulling him over and down, staining them red. Red liquid was sprayed across the bony structure that overlooked the ocean like a crude third coating of paint that an exasperated artisan poured over the structure in frustration at its complexity. The dark hands shook, whether in anger or pain, Kaiba could not decipher.  
  
"Traitor," that mouth spat.  
  
Yami sat at the dining room table downstairs, his face in his hands. It seemed that no matter what he did, when he tried to help Kaiba's condition, it only worsened. After the rain incident at Sumaru, Kaiba had collapsed, shivering and feverish, into Yami's arms. In his worry for the condition of the CEO, Yami had neglected to think everything out properly and immediately rushed Kaiba back home and put him to bed, dressing him in the warmest set of pajamas he could find in the large walk-in closet. When he saw that the brunet's chest rise and fall steadily in a deep slumber, the young ex-pharaoh retreated from the room and into the dining room downstairs. And it was in the dining room downstairs that he stayed the night, ears pricked for any sound of movement from the silent room upstairs. The tick-tock of the kitchen clock rammed into his head, threatening to make Yami's head explode in its reminder that seconds were passing by and Kaiba was not getting up.  
  
As much as he figured that he didn't need sleep, Yami still allowed himself to fall asleep on the dining table in small hour intervals throughout the night, and his mind berated his own body for showing such weakness. At times like these, sleep was not as important as the well-being of Kaiba, especially when there were so many questions to be answered. Going to the festival, or rather, the park and that beach, seemed to have triggered something that was hiding in Kaiba's memory-inflicted mind as well as the slumbering memories inside the Pharaoh's millennia-old mind. Something in the back of Yami's mind was triggered with the act that Kaiba put up at the ocean last night, and it reared its ugly head inside his dreams. In those dreams, Yami could swear he saw Kaiba, or to be more precise, "Seth" in those visions. The High Priest in his dreams always looked like he wanted to tell Yami something, but before the words could even be uttered, Yami was forcefully dragged out into the waking world. Even with those few precious hours of sleep and returning memories, Yami still couldn't understand the context behind them all. But the taste, the nostalgia, the shackled emotions all pointed to one thing-he had something with that Seth in their past lives.  
  
Yami had to admit it, he was slightly attracted to the young CEO for some time, and this situation was not helping his resolve that the attraction was just a phase. Now that the face in his dream overlapped with the face that he had to see and "baby-sit" everyday, he found that fighting off the over-powering lust was.no! It wasn't lust, can't be lust. During a time like this, he couldn't allow his emotions get the best of him. The conclusion now was that perhaps it was not a phase, but just confusion between the lines of the past and the sympathy he now held for the ailing youth. He cannot take advantage of the circumstances as they were now, he was sure of it. Kaiba needed a buddy right now, not a body.  
  
"I see that you're quite troubled," a smooth voice spoke behind him, causing Yami to jump in his seat. He turned around so quickly he nearly twisted himself off the chair in an effort to face who had entered the house. As far as he knew, Kaiba was still asleep upstairs, and if the young owner of the house were to come downstairs, Yami would be able to see him. This intruder, however, had managed to creep up behind Yami without the ancient spirit knowing. Ruby eyes met gold ones, and the latter sparkled as their owner smiled.  
  
"Toudo," Yami breathed. By now, he was almost frightened by the presence of the young doctor, the strange demeanor of the man disturbing him for reasons even he cannot fathom. Next to him, Maki was like a goddess, but next to her, Toudo was like a demon.  
  
"You're wracking your mind trying to figure out whether it is love, lust, friendship, or sympathy.or rather, you are torn between which one you would want to keep.the one from your past with whom you shared a mutual love with, or this ideal one in the present that's staring you in the face but hold no emotions towards you.yet."  
  
"What are you doing here?" Yami demanded, getting up from his seat, his strong hand clutching the back of the chair to suppress his urge to run up to Toudo and punch him square in the face.  
  
"It would appear to be nine," Toudo answered, smiling. It was then that Yami noticed the disarray of black hair that peeked from Toudo's shoulder. The small form that Toudo carried on his back was sound asleep, his breathing the only sound in the otherwise silent dining room at the moment.  
  
"Before you ask me what I did to him," Toudo said, closing his eyes and shaking his head as though talking to a life form whose intelligence was much lower than his, "I'll tell you. I did nothing. We merely stayed up a bit too long last night playing video games and he fell asleep on the trip back here. As for how I got into the house, he gave me the keys on the way." His arms moved like he was shrugging, signifying that Mokuba's burden on his back was pretty great, he needed to hoist the boy up a bit more. The motion, however, woke Mokuba up, and Toudo set him onto the ground for him to stand on his own. Looking as though a hostage had been released, Yami walked swiftly to Mokuba's side, placing a protective hand over the boy's shoulder. Toudo laughed at the amount of animosity Yami was exhibiting towards him and he patted Mokuba's head, turning to leave without a second word.  
  
It was only after Yami heard the soft click of the door closing and locking automatically that he released a large sigh of relief. "Are you okay, Mokuba?" he asked, crouching down to examine the younger Kaiba.  
  
"Yeah!" Mokuba shouted, beaming. "We had so much fun! The only way to get to Naoya's room is by conveyor belts in the factory, and on the way we saw so many monsters!" Yami wrinkled his brows and frowned, baffled by the talk of monsters coming out of Mokuba's mouth. But he decided to let it slide. Standing up, he walked over to the coffee maker to pour himself some in order to chase away the demons of sleep that had found their way to his shoulders, weighing his mind down.  
  
"Yami, are you okay?" Mokuba asked, concerned.  
  
"Y-yeah. Just a bit worried. Your brother's still sleeping, by the way," Yami answered, taking a long drag of his coffee. As he waited for the caffeine to hit his system, he went back to the dining table. "How's everything going at the company?" he asked when Mokuba sat down across from him.  
  
It's been almost a month since Kaiba had been absent from his office at work, and some of the executives as well as competitors were getting suspicious. Mokuba, being sole beneficiary of Seto, took it upon himself to keep the company running. It was a good thing that Seto had prepared them for situations like these by preparing a program where Mokuba can speak into a microphone at home and conduct a video conference with the board at work. All the people there will see is the face of Kaiba Seto on a huge screen in the conference room, complete with expressions that were modified to the computerized face after scanning the ones on Mokuba's face. It was rather convincing, and Mokuba was talented and smart enough to get through all the desk work with amazing accuracy and efficiency, thanks to the summer vacation, which was now coming to an end. Even if so, it wasn't like Mokuba couldn't decide for himself to quit school and start distance learning at home to conduct business behind his brother's back. He was quite good at forging signatures, something that Seto knew of but forbade him to do.  
  
Yawning again, Mokuba began to swing his legs under the table before he answered with a simple "fine." He then looked up at Yami and a light bulb clicked in his head. "What about your summer assignments, Yami?" Mokuba teased, "School's starting up soon for you, isn't it?"  
  
Upon hearing the question, Yami nearly collapsed at the realization that he didn't do his summer assignment at all! Yuugi was going to kill him! The two of them had been switching between who would do certain assignments when, and it was Yami's job to do the summer assignments while Yuugi did the winter assignments, but because of all the hiatuses that Kaiba's condition gave, Yami nearly forgot about the rest of his summer assignment- and the most important one at that. Before all of this crap happened, Yami had managed to finish the Japanese, math, history (which was a piece of cake), and science homework. But English was his worst subject, and he realized that he had put it off for way too long what with school starting up in only a few more days.  
  
"CRAP!!" Yami hollered, knocking his chair over as he stood up.  
  
"No cursing in front of my brother, Yami!" Kaiba shouted, apparently awake now. He descended the stairs in a slow speed, not quite awake yet. Mokuba sniggered as Yami turned his spiky head around to face Kaiba.  
  
"Kaiba!" Yami shouted, for once very glad to see Kaiba, if not counting those times when he felt his heart skip whenever the mahogany haired youth entered the room. "You came just in time! I need major help on my homework!" One thin eyebrow raised in amusement, hidden now behind the long brown bangs. Sneering, Kaiba crossed his arms, stopping in his steps on the staircase as he looked down at Yami.  
  
"Come on, Nii-sama, it's not like you have work today. It's Sunday," Mokuba said, seeing the desperate expression on Yami's face. On cue, Yami pulled out his backpack and extracted his thick English assignment, waving it in emphasis. Something that sounded like a growl emitted from Kaiba's throat, but the young man descended the stairs nonetheless and pulled out a chair to sit down.  
  
"Why do I keep feeling like it's Wednesday?" Kaiba muttered to himself, his hand running through his hair in confusion. Mokuba shot him a sad glance and then decided to leave the two of them to their studies.  
  
"I'm going to Maki's place!" he announced, running to the door, grabbing his backpack and cap along the way. "She said that her workplace looks like a fairy tale book. I want to go and check it out!"  
  
"Wait, Mokuba!" Kaiba shot up from his seat, horrified at the notion that he should be left alone in this large mansion with only Yami. "Where is that? And who is Maki?!"  
  
"A psychotherapist!" Mokuba's retreating voice shouted as he made his way out the door. "Don't worry, I've got my cell phone!"  
  
"Mokuba, wait..!" In one last attempt to summon his brother back, all Kaiba got was a slam of the door. Bemused, Kaiba sat back down onto his seat with such force Yami was surprised that he didn't squish his vertebrae. "So," Kaiba growled, "What is it that you need help on?"  
  
"We needed to read Othello and 1984 and then write a whole essay summarizing what happened in English. In English!" Yami shouted, sitting down as well.  
  
"It's not the end of the world, Yami," Kaiba mumbled, flipping through Yami's notes for a brief moment. After about ten pages, he shut the notebook and promptly chucked it at the Egyptian's head. "Ow!" Yami cried out when the edge of his notebook made contact with his forehead. "What was that for?!"  
  
"Your notes are in Japanese with very bad English, and then they sudden turn into hieroglyphics with even WORSE English notes, how do you expect me to help you?" Kaiba ground out through clenched teeth, his fist balled up on the table, trying to resist the urge to punch Yami for mere stupidity. Yami rubbed his forehead and gave a forlorn expression, causing Kaiba to reconsider what he's said. He sighed and took the notebook again, tearing out a few pages and then handing the book back to Yami.  
  
"You DID at least read those two books, didn't you?" he asked, taking a pen from Yami's pencil case. When he saw Yami nod in assent, he sighed in relief. At least he didn't have to go through those two books as well! "Then just tell me what they were about and I'll write down what you've said, word for word. When you're done, you just look off the summary I wrote in Japanese and translate it into English. If you need any help, just tell me."  
  
Yami nodded again and began to recall what he read of the two classics. Othello was easy to remember because of its soap-opera like components in the plot. Something about a Moor ship captain named Othello and his beautiful wife Desdemona, whom Iago had the hots for or whatever. The whole play was based around how much of a lying bastard Iago was, telling horrible falsities to Othello to make his trust in his faithful wife diminish into nothingness. As cliché as the whole thing sounded, Yami rather liked the play, but it also saddened him for some reason. He sighed as he finished up his summary of how in the end, Iago got his, but not before Othello killed Desdemona in anger. Shuddering, Yami blinked and saw something that made his stomach churn.  
  
A pair of darkened hands strangling a pale white neck.  
  
He shook his head rapidly, tossing that image away. He looked across the table at Kaiba, who was still scribbling away, apparently abusing the thesaurus inside his head because of Yami's simplicity in language during the summarization. Vermillion eyes studied the youth, starting from the soft brown hair that was slightly unkempt due to sleep down to the neck, which leaned on a skinny white arm that had its elbow on the table. The lazy position Kaiba displayed reminded Yami of the boy that used to study with him thousands of years ago in that thick and musty scroll room, the only source of light a small window that was dug into a mud wall. As the two got older, however, the boy had left for a long time, and when he came back.he.  
  
"Yami? Are you done?" Kaiba asked, looking up from the paper. "If you are, then start on the translation for this one first."  
  
Yami's eyes fluttered for a brief moment, dazed from the sudden rush of memories so strong he could almost smell the papyrus and taste the salty air on his tongue. He shuddered again and reached out for the paper that Kaiba had written for him. Their fingers made momentary contact, and just that was enough to send Yami off on a tangent of emotions. There was something there inside him for this young, intelligent, and very attractive man sitting across from him. But he was obviously oblivious to the staring that Yami was giving him for he was now flipping through the books to see if Yami had missed any important details, not at all sensing the intensity of the look shot his way. All Yami can do right now is try to suppress the desire welling up within him for this pale youth that was the mirror image and most likely the reincarnation of his former High Priest. Heaving a heavy mental sigh, Yami glanced down at Kaiba's elegant handwriting of his words and began to translate, wracking his mind as his train of thoughts zigzagged between his meager English vocabulary and thoughts of Kaiba.  
  
For the next hour, neither of them said anything, the only sounds in the dining room were the tick-tocking of that annoying clock and the scribbling of Yami's pencil over paper, as well as the occasional turning of pages on Kaiba's part. Every so often, Yami would let the thoughts of Kaiba get the best of him and his scarlet eyes would roll up slightly to steal a glance at Kaiba. This was Yami's break from homework; to look at those half- lidded blue eyes veiled by thick, long eyelashes that moved like fluttering raven wings when Kaiba blinked. Full, supple lips moved silently as Kaiba read silently to himself the lines of the book, and a pink tongue darted out occasionally to wet those lips, sending shivers down Yami's spine whenever he did such a thing. Only when Yami realized that he was nearly writing off the paper and onto the table did he jerk his attention back onto his scribbles, but he would repeat the process about fifteen minutes later, this time studying some other part of the young billionaire in front of him.  
  
Finally, after a painstakingly long hour of half writing an essay and half mentally peeling the clothes off Kaiba, Yami stretched his hand out with a thrust, his paper finished. Taking the paper in his pale hand, Kaiba took out a red pen and began to skim over the paper, motioning for Yami to sit next to him in case quick revisions needed to be made.  
  
"This part is strange," Kaiba said, pointing at the jagged words that Yami had strained to write down. "You wrote here, 'She would no open her lip.'"  
  
"Is that wrong?" Yami inquired, looking down at the paper, his head leaning in a bit too close even for his own liking. At this proximity, he could smell something that was like the aroma of lotuses on Seto, and he was taking him all his sanity to not knock Seto onto the ground. All he could remember right now was the extreme love he had held for his High Priest, Seth, and now that desire was spilling over on this side. But he couldn't act, not now, when Kaiba didn't seem to remember anything except maybe how to eat chocolate the Egyptian way and make it rain.  
  
"Yes," Kaiba stated bluntly. "You see, you have to write it as 'she would not open her lips.'"  
  
"Why? There's only one mouth."  
  
"Yes, but lips are referring to 'kuchibiru,' which would consist of the upper and lower lip, which would then make up the one mouth."  
  
"How complicated," Yami muttered, scribbling down the correction.  
  
"It's all right, not as complicated as." His words were cut off when he felt something looming over him and he turned to stare into deep pools of red as they closed in.  
  
"What are you doing..?"  
  
"Shh."  
  
"What are you doing?!"  
  
"It's not like you'll remember, anyway."  
  
Before he could register what was happening, he felt firm, hot lips upon his own and he widened his eyes in shock. Yami's resolve had shattered completely, and now he held Kaiba's chin up with one strong hand, pressing his lips onto Kaiba's, reveling in its sweetness. He had wanted to go further, wanted to explore that hot mouth, but Kaiba shoved him away violently and stood up, knocking his chair over in his haste.  
  
"Seto."  
  
Blue eyes darted around the room for a minute, avoiding Yami's and yet wanting to glare at the former Pharaoh in anger and embarrassment, but instead the brunet opted to run for it despite himself. He pushed past Yami even as the other teen shouted after him, and bolted up the stairs, into the safety of his room.  
  
Seeing that he had frightened Seto off, Yami congratulated himself on his own stupidity and sat down, hoping that Seto would soon forget that it had ever happened and come back down. When he heard the door to Seto's room slam closed, he decided that perhaps it would take longer for Seto to come down if he forgets that Yami was even in his house.  
  
Panting, Kaiba leaned against the door of his room, finally feeling safe for now. He gulped, his mouth dry from.what was it? Anger? Nervousness? Embarrassment? He didn't want to admit that he had actually enjoyed the feel of those velvety lips on his own, didn't want to admit that he had been attracted to Yami, but he still walked to his desk and pulled out a notebook he had labeled "Diary" but never remembered purchasing such a thing. Flipping through the pages full of scribbles that said essentially the same things, Kaiba stopped when he found a blank page and wrote down the only entry for the day.  
  
"I am madly in love with Yami."  
  
Right after he wrote it, however, he forgot what had taken place and how fast he heart had beat when he tasted Yami's mouth. Suddenly feeling sleepy, Kaiba dropped the notebook haphazardly onto his desk and plopped down onto his bed.  
  
Hands roamed on moonlit pale skin, the dark hands contrasting the soft skin that they traveled on. The sound of sheets shifting as one body moved to hover over the other ran through the room, disrupting the pants and the moans that hung in the summer air. A hot tongue shot out and trailed down the sweat-slicked body shuddering beneath him. The Pharaoh chuckled as his prize moaned again, his back arching to the heat of the tongue, to those hands, to the other body, desiring and yet resisting at the same time. Moonlight poured in from the large windows that adorned the walls around the luxuriously large bed, shimmering in the tearful blue orbs of the captured. Trembling white hands pressed against the domineering figure's chin, resisting.  
  
"Don't do it.we mustn't."  
  
There was a deep, cruel chuckle before the soft touches turned harsh and rapid, littering marks of pure lust over delicate white skin. A free hand shot out and grabbed those pushing hands and pulled them over the brunet's head.  
  
"Your body is no longer a temple, Seth. You are no longer High Priest.and I can do as I wish."  
  
Stop it.!  
  
Red eyes narrowed as their owner relished the sob that emitted from the shuddering form beneath him, and he leaned down. His breath was hot as it tickled Seth's ear and a tongue teased those keen ears.  
  
"I love you, Seth."  
  
Liar.  
  
A bruising kiss rewarded silent and unresponsive lips, not at all unfamiliar in its ferocity and its emphasis of desire. Those strong, dark hands began exploring again, not that they haven't touched the beautiful skin before, but this time it wasn't in tenderness. The goal of those hands were to mark a territory, to make Seth his.  
  
"I love you, Seth.I want to kiss every part of your body.to mark you as mine."  
  
Liar!  
  
The sovereign continued to utter those words like a mantra as his continued to administer touches that wretched sobs of desire and sweet tears from Seth, unable to resist the pleasure that was being handed to him, as forceful as they were. An animalistic howl came from his throat as he threw his head back, and he saw the face of his hunter, his dominator.  
  
Yami.  
  
I HATE YOU!  
  
The shaking hand ripped at the cord of the bedside lamp with such brutality, the lamp nearly fell of the small table and shattered to a million pieces. Apparently, the one who turned on said lamp didn't seem to mind, or care, as he darted to the bathroom across the hall from his bedroom.  
  
Kaiba lifted the toilet seat and emptied what little content he had inside his stomach, a wave of nausea washing over him. The force of his vomiting knocked the wind out of him, and he pulled at the flush knob as he coughed, another set of vomiting convulsions wracking through him. Yami, hearing that the CEO was up and out of his room, ran upstairs to the bathroom, worried about all that clamoring. When he reached the bathroom, he saw Kaiba sprawled on the tiled floor of the bathroom in front of the toilet, coughing out the last of the green bile that was ailing him, his elbow hanging off the edge of the toilet, tears rimming his eyes. Panting, Kaiba turned to Yami and heaved out a question.  
  
"Who were you when you said you loved me?"  
  
To be continued.  
  
Sorry that this chapter came so late, I fell asleep twice while writing it. About the title, it was from the book 1984, a book I had to read for my own English class. Hopefully people are now starting to get the idea of what exactly (maybe) happened in the past with Seth and Yami. This chapter was inspired by an Uesugi /Naoya doujinshi I read as well as the manga "Okaneganaide."  
  
Is it just me, or is Naoya getting more and more creepy? 


	11. Goldfish

Okay, Naoya is just getting creepier by the chapters, if that's a possible thing. So I've decided to start something like a poll-the "How Creepy is Naoya" poll! Please rate him on a scale of one to ten, ten being the creepiest, and give me reasons why! I actually have quite a lot of fun making him creepy, though sometimes he scares even me.  
  
Naoya: *smiles*  
  
*shudders* Um, yeah.anyway. Thank you all again for all of your reviews! You all have been so very supportive, thank you so much! I am sorry that this fic and "Distance" aren't getting updated as often as I would like.I am getting to be somewhat narcoleptic.I keep falling asleep whenever I say I'm going to update something.  
  
Disclaimers: I don't own Kaiba or Yami, or anyone from YuGiOh. Nor do I own anyone from Persona. The only thing I can probably make a claim to is Naoya's creepiness, which just comes with his environment, I guess. Also, warnings for bizarre happenings in the beginning of this fic along with some violence later on.  
  
Chapter 11-Goldfish  
  
Toudo Naoya smiled and waved the old lady good-bye, his gold eyes mirthless as they watched his last patient for today's appointments walk out. He stood up and treaded over to look at the goldfish he caught during the summer festival, staring deeply at it, at how it swam in the small bowl that Reiji got for him, complete with a small treasure chest on the bottom.  
  
Just as he was about to leave, the door clicked open and his housemate walked in, his gray eyes on Toudo's face, and then on the goldfish. "Naoya," the deep voice said, breaking the silence of the room. "Would you like to go have lunch together before you start your ER shift?" Smiling in response, Toudo opened the window and allowed the mid-day breeze to waft into the room, cooling off the end-of-summer humidity that stuck itself inside his small office. The comforting breeze allowed a few soft strands of Toudo's blue-black hair to take flight, uncovering his ears and sending a spectrum of light reflecting off his plain silver earring into the room. A small hand reached up to the earring and yanked it off, causing Reiji to wince even though he wasn't the one who had just torn the flesh off his left earlobe. Hard gray eyes watched as the bloodied hand dropped the earring and the small speck of flesh into the fish bowl. The fish, thinking food has come, immediately swam up and poked at the tissue with its puckering mouth.  
  
"Reiji, did you know that goldfish have an attention span of about fifteen to thirty seconds? About the same length as a human's short term memory?" Naoya asked, leaning leisurely against the windowsill to look down at the fishbowl on his metal file cabinet. Reiji shook his head, not going to the boyish-looking man who had blood dripping from his one inflicted ear to his shoulder.  
  
"No," Reiji answered, seeing that Naoya couldn't have seen him shake his head.  
  
"Well, they do." Naoya whispered, his finger tapping slightly at the fish bowl. The fish continued to nibble at the water-softened flesh dropped to it, surrounded by the dissipating blood. "But after thirty seconds, this fish will no longer eat the fish food I provide for it.nor will it eat the fish food a day afterwards, or the day after that, or the day after that.Because it would remember and love the taste of my blood and flesh." A small chuckle escaped the boyish lips as Naoya lifted his hand swiftly, knocking the fishbowl to the ground, letting it shatter and spill thin red liquid out along with its hapless inhabitant. "Such a hypocritical creature wishes so much for freedom.even though it knows it will suffer and die when it is released from the confines of the fishbowl." Golden eyes leveled with gray ones and Reiji shuddered at the sight of those eyes, of that strangely intoxicating smile. The two of them watched the flopping fish until it no longer struggled and gasped for air on the ground and lied still. Seeing that it was dead, Naoya walked around the mess he had made and slipped his small hand within Reiji's large, callused ones.  
  
"Let's go get lunch," he whispered, leaning against Reiji as the taller man lead him out the office.  
  
***  
  
"Who was I when I said I loved you?" Yami repeated the strange question that was tossed at him out of the blue. Blue eyes stared intently at him, waiting for an answer. The former Pharaoh was at a loss; he couldn't remember a thing from his past life, not even his own name, how can he give an answer that will satisfy Seto right now? "I love you."  
  
Heavy feet lifted off the tiled bathroom floor and carried Yami across, approaching Seto. As he crouched down and reached out to touch the brunet's face, however, Seto shrank back from the touch. Fear littered those brilliant cobalt eyes, the taste of the dream still too strong to shake off and the image of Yami's face sending terror down Seto's spine.  
  
"Don't worry, Seto." Yami whispered, his hands moving slowly in the distance between the two of them, "Don't be scared." His fingertips made contact with Kaiba's cheeks and he cupped them, staring into those blue depths as his mind searched for an answer.  
  
"You traitor! How could you?! How could you kill him!?" a livid voice screamed, carrying obscenities through the room.  
  
"I put him out of his misery," Seth answered smoothly, his eyes unwavering as they looked into blood-red ones that glared heatedly back at him.  
  
"YOU BASTARD!!"  
  
"Bastard." Yami whispered, his mind having not found the right answer but instead coming upon the wrong memory. In his daze, the anger that was pent up for three millennia grabbed the chance for release and traveled its way to Yami's fingertips. The Egyptian spirit allowed his fingers to slide down Seto's cheek and circle around the thin, delicate neck, applying pressure.  
  
"Yami?" Seto whimpered, unsure of whether this was a joke or not, having seen the vision as well.  
  
"You murderer! What happened to you, Seth? What happened to the nice, gentle Seth I knew?!" Yami shouted, advancing towards Seth.  
  
"People change, dear Pharaoh." Seth answered nonchalantly. Without another word, he turned and walked away, descending down the long hall until he couldn't be seen within the shadows.  
  
"How could you." Yami muttered, the hatred of his memories coming back afresh, causing his fingers to tighten more around that pale neck. Kaiba began to claw at his hands, at the ensnaring noose that cut off his air supply.  
  
"Yami." he groaned, trying to pull away but with no avail. His assailant was apparently in a trance, his eyes clouded over. Sucking in what little air he could, Kaiba shoved against Yami's chest, surprised at how the much shorter form could have so much power and dominance over him, and he shouted. "YAMI!"  
  
The exclamation seemed to have done the trick, for Yami jolted, snapping out of his trance and he immediately released his grip on Kaiba's neck. The force of the shove wasn't that great, and yet Kaiba was still able to throw himself against the wall next to the toilet. The Pharaoh's victim leaned against the wall, one hand rubbing against the reddened neck, panting. Clear cobalt eyes glared up at Yami, the pupils still slightly dilated due to lack of oxygen, and he hissed even though it caused him to cough in his body's instinctual search for air. Horrified at his own actions, Yami stood up from where he was pushed and back up until he reached the door of the bathroom, his eyes never leaving Kaiba's until the other absolutely refused to look at him, turning away in fear and disgust. It was then that Yami realized that his hands were shaking tremulously, those hands that had nearly killed the youth sprawled before him. Raising his hands, he stared at them as they trembled, his fingers unable to clench. Without another word, he turned and bolted out the door, out of the Kaiba mansion, and out of Kaiba's memories thirty seconds later.  
  
"Yami!" a voice called within Yami's mind.  
  
"What?!" Yami shouted, not caring about the fact that people were staring at him as he ran down the streets, seemingly talking to himself.  
  
"You're going to just leave him in there? Alone by himself!?" Yuugi's childish voice cried out, the look on his face a picture of horror.  
  
"I can't do it, Aibou," Yami whispered, crouching down at the side of the road, sighing. "I can't take care of him when these things are happening. I mean, I just put my fingers around his neck and APPLIED PRESSURE! And I keep seeing weird visions when I'm with him. I see myself hating him and loving him at the same time I don't know which one it is anymore. All I know is that it's not healthy." He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut, his mind a blur. "I can't go back there."  
  
"But you have to." Yuugi insisted.  
  
"Give me one good reason," Yami challenged.  
  
"You left your stuff there."  
  
***  
  
Kaiba shook his head, looking at the opened door to his bathroom. He couldn't seem to remember why his throat hurt so much, or why he was gasping for breath. There was a sour and bitter taste in his mouth, like bile. Scrunching his nose in disgust, he got up and brushed his teeth, not knowing why it felt as though he had vomited. Last he remembered, he was sitting in his office, in front of his laptop, working.  
  
Work. It then hit Kaiba that he wasn't at the office, that he was at home. "I must have fallen asleep at the office and got brought back," he said to himself. Shrugging, he began to trek back to his bedroom, deciding that he should really get into the office now that he obviously overslept. There was an important meeting today at 9:30 that he had to attend, and he absolutely can't be late for it. Checking his watch for the time, his brows furrowed when the watch showed him that it was sometime in the afternoon, but on Sunday.  
  
"Isn't today Wednesday?" he murmured, tapping at his watch. It didn't seem to be broken, and it was the newest solar-powered type of watch, so the batteries couldn't have been dying. Since the office wouldn't be open today, Kaiba then decided that perhaps he should go and work on some blueprints for new dueling machines that he had thought up a couple of months ago. It was a good thing it was still summer, he had time to work on them before school started; not that it mattered to him, though. He had applied for graduation last year and was granted the application, his credits for high school already filled up. He no longer had to go to the school and face those fools again. Those fools.what were their names again? Kaiba's mind suddenly drew a blank as he tried to remember the faces of that one posse that seemed to always bother him, and yet he couldn't even seem to form a name to a clear face. All of them seemed so blurry now.  
  
"I guess I'm just tired," the brunet said to himself as he opened the door to his drawing room and sat down to sketch the blueprints.  
  
***  
  
Yami muttered under his breath as he stalked his way back to the Kaiba mansion. It was true that he left everything he took with him to the house: his clothes, his backpack, and most importantly, the homework that he had finally got around to doing. If he could help it, he wouldn't go back to that place, that place where his memories ran amok and mocked him. He snarled and turned a corner, bumping right into someone.  
  
"Sorry," Yami muttered, backing up. When he saw who it was that he bumped into, his crimson eyes widened in surprise. "Maki?" he breathed. He had already been disturbed by Toudo this morning when he was dropping off Mokuba, and now came the woman whom he deemed was indeed nice, but was the deliverer of bad news. Her soft hand was holding Mokuba's, who was now staring up at Yami incredulously.  
  
"Yami?" Mokuba asked. "What are you doing out here? Where's Nii-sama?"  
  
"I.I left him in the house." Yami answered with guilt, his finger pointing weakly in towards the Kaiba mansion's general direction.  
  
"Alone? By himself?" Maki asked, sounding a bit upset.  
  
"Yes, yes, I'm sorry!" Yami shouted, almost hopping up and down in his frustration. "It's just that.weird things happen.whenever I'm around him." Maki studied Yami's face, her orange-brown eyes narrowing in consideration, as though she were searching through his mind. After a moment's deliberation, Maki leaned her head back and sighed. "Normally I would ask that you tell me what happened, but as of now I am quite worried about Kaiba-san's condition. It's best that we go back and check on him," Maki suggested. Mokuba nodded and squeezed her hand tighter than he did a minute ago, and reached out to grab Yami's as well, urging him to come along. Defeated, Yami followed the two of them.  
  
Upon arriving at the large gates of the house, Yami immediately sensed that something was wrong. He felt his blood freeze over and he took a small step back from the door, his eyes widening.  
  
"Yami?" Maki called out, "What's wrong?"  
  
I have to go and see him.Ra knows what he's going to do.  
  
Taking another step back, Yami had to balance himself from falling back on the steps towards the house. He felt his teeth chatter in fear, but there was something else tainted that fear.what was it? Frustration? Hatred? His hands shook as he heard the sound of the door clicking open, but it sounded distant, like he was locked in a small room without any of his senses and suddenly someone had given him back his hearing. When the door was opened, the emotions that kaleidoscopes through Yami's mind only grew stronger, a wave of uncertainty pulsing through him.  
  
"I-I want him to remember." Yami whispered. A pair of concerned eyes turned and looked at him, their owner smiling wistfully. "We all do," she said, "But we have to be patient."  
  
"I don't know if I can be." Yami murmured, his voice out of reach from anyone's ears as they entered the house. Mokuba immediately ran upstairs to look for Kaiba as Maki and Yami trailed not too far behind, afraid to lose the boy in this house as well as their way around. Yami looked down at his hands; they were still shaking from his anguish before. He had felt such intense hatred and yet he couldn't seem to find the root of it all; he wondered why exactly he couldn't pinpoint the reasoning to the sudden change in emotions towards the young CEO-one minute he was lusting after him, and then when those strange visions came rushing at his mind, he had wanted to kill Seto so badly. It felt like everything he was doing was so futile, that Seto wasn't going to remember a thing anyway, and a small part of him just wanted to end it all; end the frustration that he felt towards the dwindling mind of what was Kaiba Seto. The man had been so intelligent and self-sufficient, but now he can't even remember when was the last time he ate so that he can go on to eating his next meal.  
  
Put him out of his misery.  
  
The sound of that voice came so suddenly, it made Yami gasp and look around. Someone had spoken to him, and it sounded like the sort of speech that can only happen within a telepathic link he shared with Yuugi, but he was sure Yuugi wouldn't say such a thing. Besides, the voice sounded too cold and too silky, too seductive to belong to his innocent light. Gears ground within Yami's mind as he tried to match a face up with that voice, he had heard it before.  
  
Suddenly, Maki stopped in front of him, her hand grabbing Mokuba's to stop him from walking any further, and Yami, lost in his thoughts, bumped into her. She glanced at Yami, who bowed lightly in apology, and then turned her head to Mokuba. "He's in here," she said, motioning towards the door she stopped in front of.  
  
"How would you know?" Yami asked, his eyes narrowing. For a second, the kind aura around her pulsated, giving off a feeling of warm and yet uncertainty at the same time. Maki smiled and the warmth intensified, just like the first time Yami met her. "I am a psychotherapist," she stated, "And therefore I am psychic."  
  
"That's not very plausible," Yami muttered, his hand going to the knob anyway. It wasn't going to help the situation get any better if they searched through all the rooms of the house, so they might as well try out Maki's suggestion. Upon opening the door, Yami felt a salty breeze wash over his body, the heat of an Egyptian day pulsing through his body as he smelled sand and papyrus. He closed his eyes and inhaled, the light of the sun that shot through the windows tickling his cheeks.  
  
"Yami?" a voice, not at all unfamiliar, called out to him. Yami opened his eyes to see Seth sitting there, in his priest's garb, a large scroll opened over his lap, and several more at his feet. The sun colored his otherwise pale skin, making it look not as pallid as it usually was. Blinking, Yami shook his head of this vision by reflex, hoping that when he opened them again, the vision of his priest and that scroll room would still be there, but instead he found himself inside the Kaiba mansion's drawing room, with Kaiba, not Seth, sitting about a few yards away from him on a drawing bench in front of a drawing board. Several crumpled up pieces of paper lied at the bottom of his bench, and Kaiba's hand was still scribbling on the large drawing board despite the fact that he was looking at Yami. "What are you doing here?" Kaiba asked, his hand still working at the pencil, the sound of the lead scratching against paper the only sound in the room as Yami searched for an answer. His mind was a blank after seeing that ephemeral vision, that dream that he wished were true.  
  
"I."??Just as he was about to answer, Kaiba dropped the pencil in his hand and gripped the top edge of the drawing board and leaned against it, groaning. Fearing the worst, Yami approached Kaiba and gripped his shoulders. Upon contact, Yami heard the one thing he hated hearing from the CEO's lips during his stay with him.  
  
That gulping, hiccupping sound.  
  
Maki, hearing it as well, came forward and pulled Kaiba back by his shoulders to prevent him from banging his head against the drawing board as his body jolted. Just like before, those blue eyes rolled back in their sockets and Kaiba made a choking sound as he gulped, his head thrown back like a wild animal. Maki held onto his arms as Yami helped grip his shoulders, Mokuba watching helplessly at the edge of the door as his brother was lost in that whirlpool of uncertainty, not sure where the "safety net" was. Eventually, Kaiba proved to be too strong for Maki's hold and he grabbed the finished blueprint on the drawing board, tearing it off and throwing it onto the floor with a wild roar. With that final outburst, he stopped and his eyes rolled back into place, looking as though what happened did not take place at all. He sighed and leaned against the drawing board, Yami's hands releasing him when the convulsions stopped. Immediately he picked up the pencil again and plotted to get back to work on designing the same machine he did for the past hour, for the fifth time.  
  
"Out," Yami breathed, watching Kaiba as the man scribbled away, oblivious to anyone else in the room. "I have to talk to him."  
  
"Yami." Maki whispered, her tone apprehensive.  
  
"Please," Yami urged. "I want to talk to him myself."  
  
"I'll be outside, then," Maki approved. She then walked over to Mokuba and took his hand, leading him out the door. She left a crack in the door so that she may watch the two of them. The emotions she saw swimming within Yami's eyes troubled her, and she hoped that he wouldn't act out of impulse.  
  
Her hopes were to be crushed in less than fifteen minutes.  
  
"Stop it," Yami ordered, grabbing the pencil out of Kaiba's hand. The brunet glared at him and reached for the pencil, but Yami back up, holding it out of reach. The glare shot his way intensified as Yami did this, and Kaiba stepped off his bench, going over to Yami.  
  
"Give it back," Kaiba ordered, "I have to work."  
  
"No you don't," Yami growled, at the end of his rope. His frustration found its way to his hand and he snapped the pencil in half, snarling as the wood bit into his skin, sticking splinters into his flesh. "You are in no condition to work anymore."  
  
Kaiba looked testy, and he crossed his arms. "Oh? Why?"  
  
Yami had anticipated the defiant Seto to counter him like this, but he had to do this, even if it were to be the hard way, if he could only make him see, make him remember. With his resolve in mind, Yami leaned down and picked up the crumpled pieces of paper, opening each of them up to show the exact same sketches.  
  
"Because this is all you can do now," Yami said, his voice no heavier than a breath even though the gravity of his words weighed down in the air, as thick as the blood that squeezed itself out from the small cuts on his hands. "All you can do is be stuck in that thirty-second timeframe."  
  
"What are you saying?" The tone that spoke those words was trying, but there was a tinge of insecurity in it. The sketches all looked identical, there were no changes made to any despite the fact that they were all crumpled up. Normally, if Kaiba had been designing machines, he would at the very least make some notes on the sketches or some sort of changes, even if they were to be thrown away. There was nothing like that on these sketches, they all looked like a carbon copy of each other.  
  
"I'm saying that you can't remember a thing after thirty seconds!" Yami shouted, throwing the pieces of paper down onto the ground, letting them flutter and land around him. His red eyes burned with fury and aggravation, his teeth clenching as he advanced towards Kaiba. "You've been like this for the past half a month! Look at you! Why are you doing these things!? You're just hurting yourself!" He knew he was out of line, that the situation couldn't be helped when Kaiba can't remember a thing to make the matters a bit better, but he just couldn't take it anymore. He wanted Kaiba to remember, to know that he harbored something for him. Whatever emotions the two of them managed to build up was forgotten within minutes, and Yami was tired of having to construct such delicate plots again. He didn't want Kaiba to keep doing things that will harm his mind, but nothing short of strapping Kaiba in a straightjacket can prevent him from doing these things. "Look at these! They're all the same because you can't think of anything new because you can't remember what you've already done!"  
  
"What exactly are you getting at, Yami? Are you insulting my intelligence?" Kaiba whispered, his eyes narrowing.  
  
"No! I'm saying that you're like a goldfish because your hippocampus got ripped out!" Yami screamed. He then clamped his hand over his mouth as those blue eyes widened in shock. He had wanted to get it across to the other youth that he was no longer in the condition to do work, but to call him a goldfish.to call someone who was as intelligent as Kaiba a "goldfish," and to reveal to him that his very way of life has been changed in such a way that he can't even remember long enough to understand his own condition.it was harsh.  
  
Jaw slack, Kaiba's lips moved slightly, but no words came out. Then, he nodded, his fingers twitching at his sides. "Is that so?" Kaiba whispered. Hot tears ran down his face, but he wasn't sobbing. "Is that the case?"  
  
"Seto, I." Yami wanted to apologize. He had let his own selfish emotions get the best of himself again. He cursed himself silently and wondered where his royal and calm resolve went every time he was faced with his former High Priest. A hand shot up, silencing him, and Kaiba widened the distance between the two of them, going to the art supplies he kept in a desk. Opening a drawer, Kaiba's pale hand produced a sharp letter-opener, and he raised it with a shaky hand, pointed end towards him.  
  
"A goldfish, am I?" he asked, his voice fluctuating between huffs and actual words. "Well, let's see about that.let's see if I can remember this pain.just like how a goldfish can remember the taste of flesh and blood!!" Spitting those words out, Kaiba plunged the letter opener into his upper arm, letting it rip through his skin and his flesh, but not yet releasing blood. Only when he pulled it out did the blood begin to spill over, staining his shirt and the floor. Yami stared at Kaiba, his mind blank until he saw the young businessman raise the already bloodied weapon for another round.  
  
"Seto!" he shouted, running towards Kaiba and grabbing those wrists. Captured, Kaiba screamed and began to struggle, his pent up frustration bursting out like the blood that was now staining both of them. He snarled like a wounded beast and bit Yami's arm, but the Pharaoh didn't release him. Maki, hearing the commotion, ordered Mokuba to stay in the hall and ran inside. She immediately grabbed Kaiba's waist, pulling him away from Yami before he tore flesh. Infuriated, Seto spun around to punch her, but she held a hand up to his forehead and Yami could have sworn he saw blue light emit from her palm.  
  
"You can't do this, understand?" she whispered. As though struck by a spell, Kaiba groaned and fell against Maki, his body slack, in a deep slumber. Sighing, Maki set the boy down and grabbed a piece of cloth that was used for cleaning palette knives. It was dirty, but better than nothing, and she wrapped that around Kaiba's arm. When she finished her makeshift first aid, she turned her head and glared at Yami, her eyes flaring up in anger. "What were you thinking?!" she shouted. Then she reconsidered her words and shook her head. "No, excuse me, you WEREN'T thinking!" Yami felt like a child being reprimanded by an elder in this situation, and in truth, he felt just as bad, if not worse. "What possessed you to do that?!"  
  
"I-I'm sorry," Yami whispered, lowering his head. Maki shook her head again and looked at Kaiba, who was considerably paler due to the loss of blood. His wound wasn't clotting up well enough, and she picked him up with amazing strength that she didn't exhibit moments ago. "Let's go," she said to Yami.  
  
"Where?" Yami asked, getting up on his feet as well.  
  
"The hospital," Maki answered, opening the door to pat Mokuba's head with a reassuring hand. "We have to get him to Naoya. He can help patch him up and do some brain scans to see if he's more damaged.by the way he cried, it seems that something inside him remembers."  
  
***  
  
At the hospital, Maki had managed to borrow a stretcher from the emergency personnel, and Yami helped wheel the stretcher up to Toudo's office, which was on the third floor of the hospital. It was quite amazing how a small woman like Maki could carry Seto around with one arm, having slung him over her shoulder, when she couldn't even hold his arms back when he was going into convulsions. But right now he couldn't worry about Maki's strength or how she was able to put Kaiba to sleep like some beast tamer. He had to worry about Kaiba's condition.  
  
"Naoya?" Maki called, stopping at a door. She knocked softly and listened for an answer. "Funny, he's usually in here when he's on break." Shrugging, she opened the door to the office. Naoya was inside, all right, but his eyes were intent on a chess board set in front of him. It would appear that he was playing by himself, but the look on his face was so grave it looked like he was staking his life on the game. Hearing the sound of the stretcher being wheeled in, he looked up and smiled. "What seems to be the problem?" Naoya inquired, his hands putting the chess board onto a small table next to his desk but making no motion to return the pieces to their original positions, making sure that they stayed in-game. Maki gestured to Kaiba and Naoya nodded, smiling.  
  
"I see." Naoya said, going over to the stretcher. Yami looked around the office and noticed that the place looked more like a school's infirmary than a doctor's office in a big hospital. There were three infirmary beds off to the side, and a desk was set by the window. Next to the desk, there was a small tree with maroon leaves inside a pot, and the chess board set on a play table.  
  
"Strange office," Yami noted, his head turning this way and that. Naoya smiled again as he lifted Kaiba and set the sleeping form onto one of the beds. "I rather like it," Naoya said, "Reminds me of my high school days." He stood up and walked over to his supply cabinet, pulling out a metal dish and some cotton, gauze, tweezers, a plastic pouch with something in there, as well as a bottle of alcohol.  
  
"I'll need you to leave," Naoya said, sitting back down next to Kaiba. "All of you. I'll call you when he's awake." Maki nodded and walked to the door, giving both Yami and Mokuba's shoulders a little push. Yami turned his head and looked for one last time as Naoya sat down next to Kaiba, then the door was shut.  
  
Naoya studied the wound that Maki had wrapped up with the cloth, noting how dirty it was and how he would have to clean it off more than he expected. Sighing, he pulled the cloth off and took a pair of scissors to the stained sleeve, cutting it open. The wound was deep, but it didn't look like it had severed any nerves, and Naoya immediately got to work, opening the small plastic pouch to take out a needle to stitch up the hole that Kaiba had punctured himself with. "Cutting yourself like this." he murmured, stitching the wound up. "Is it really that bad? Maybe it'd be better for you if you didn't remember at all." His eyes narrowed as his hand made a loop in the skin. The tall figure on the bed groaned and blinked his eyes open and looked at Naoya. His eyes widened as soon as he saw what was being done to him.  
  
"I thought you were supposed to keep me under when you do this!" he shouted, his body moving away by instinct. The thread pulled at his loose skin and flesh, tugging at them in pain in its unfinished state and Kaiba had to stay still, hissing. "I had put some local anesthetics," Naoya replied nonchalantly, the edge of his lips quirking up just a bit. Finishing his work, he placed fresh gauze around the wound and went to his desk to retrieve a clipboard.  
  
"Why am I here?" Seto questioned, looking around at the office. He didn't remember it being a school day, neither did he recall that the infirmary at school looked so.dark. The feeling the whole place gave off was a bit strange, like there was something lurking in the shadows.  
  
"You cut yourself in art class," Toudo answered, writing something down onto his clipboard. "No big deal, but I still have to do some checkups on you." With that, he pulled the stethoscope around his neck up to his ears and placed it on Kaiba's chest. "Breathe in."  
  
Confused at why a cut would result to a checkup, Kaiba furrowed his brows and did as he was told. He was then ordered to breathe out, which he did with a huge heave of breath. Naoya nodded and set down his clipboard, his hands then going to his ears to remove the stethoscope, placing it back around his neck. He then clasped his hands on his lap and smiled, leaning in to study Kaiba's face. "Funny," he chuckled.  
  
"What?" Kaiba asked, annoyed.  
  
"You don't have a heart." whispered the boyish doctor. He raised his middle and index finger, pointing it at Kaiba's chest where the heart is, and placed them softly over the thumping beneath the skin. "That can go thump-a-thump-thump." He removed his fingers and let his hand hover over Kaiba's chest, his smile growing as his eyes glimmered in the afternoon sun. Narrowing his eyes, Kaiba shifted back in his position. The action struck Toudo as humorous, and he laughed, his hand going up to his chin as he rubbed it in consideration.  
  
"Go to sleep now, when I come back in with your friends, you'll be awake," Naoya said. His voice wasn't a suggestion, it sounded more like an order, and Kaiba found his eyelids growing heavier despite himself. He slumped forward and Naoya settled him onto the bed, pulling the blankets over the younger boy.  
  
"Maybe it's best if you forget. Then you won't be so tormented by those memories.but." Naoya sighed and placed his thumb over Seto's forehead, running it down to the point between his eyebrows. "The line between your subconscious and your consciousness shouldn't be so blurred. If you persist, then I will help you." He sat back and watched the sleeping face for another few minutes before standing up to go to the door. Upon opening it, he saw Yami and Mokuba sitting on the waiting benches across the hall from his office door.  
  
"Maki went to work," Yami explained, seeing that Naoya seemed to be searching for Maki. The doctor nodded and motioned the two into the room.  
  
Yami entered the room just in time to see Kaiba sit up, shaking his head slightly. He always did that when he woke up due to a bit of anemia, his first waking minutes always a bit tipsy and incoherent. He walked over to the bedside quickly, in wide strides, wanting to apologize for what Kaiba had done; it was really his fault. It wasn't like Kaiba would remember, but at least he would make up some story so that he can apologize and get the guilt off his chest. Maybe something like an accident in gym class when they were practicing fencing would work.  
  
"Seto," Yami said, sitting down next to Kaiba. Kaiba lifted his head and studied Yami's face with a blank look, and Yami decided to give him a few more minutes to clear his head of the anemia. Mokuba hopped onto the chair that was opposite of Yami's, on the other side of the bed, and Naoya watched them from a corner of the room, his arms crossed in front of his chest. When Kaiba continued to stare at Yami with that same blank stare after the allotted time, the once Pharaoh placed a soft hand over the CEO's shoulder, his head lowering to look Seto in those blue eyes he was always so intrigued by.  
  
Those blue eyes blinked once, twice, before focusing on Yami's face and the voice spoke.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
To be continued.  
  
Wait.what just happened? I thought that Naoya was only supposed to be here for medical reasons but now that people think he's creepy and suspicious I couldn't help but turn him into something like a.mystical character. Yeah. But he's still not my own character, he belongs to Atlus.  
  
But seriously, I didn't even see this one coming. Plot bunny from under my bed shot up and bit me in the head or something. Sorry that this one came so late, but I kept falling asleep and this one time I read a hilariously funny fic that turned me stupid for one night. 


	12. Farewell to My Concubine

Thank you all once again for your generous reviews! Sorry but this chapter is a bit short because it's nothing but explanations/theories about what might be wrong with Kaiba. It's sort of like a break chapter, trying to sum up for what's to come up next. As most of you might know, there's a "How Creepy is Naoya" poll going on right now, and you can always change your score and reasons!  
  
Disclaimer: They still do not belong to me, as much as I would like to buy them from the brilliant minds who thought them up. All I can really afford right now is perhaps the information of what they were on when they thought these characters up and obtain it and hope for the best. I also don't own "Ba Wong Bei Gi."  
  
Chapter 12-Farewell to My Concubine  
  
"Who are you?" the voice whispered. Yami felt his body jolt backwards as the cold chill ran through his body, and his back knocked against the metal backing of the folding chair he sat on. Mokuba gasped and gripped at Seto's sleeve, tugging at it a bit, getting the young man's attention. The blue eyes focused on Mokuba's slate-colored ones and a smile pulled at his lips. "What is it, Mokuba?" he asked. He then rolled his eye quickly to his right to signal at Yami. "Who is that? A friend of yours?"  
  
Mokuba dragged himself onto the bed and sat on Seto's lap, tugging on the sleeve desperately. "It's Yami, Nii-sama! Don't you remember him?" Mokuba asked frantically. "Your biggest rival in Dueling Monsters!"  
  
"Never played that game before," Kaiba answered easily. "And I've never met this.Yami before." He turned and studied Yami, his brows furrowing. "My, what strange hair you have." Mouth agape, Yami looked at Seto, and then at Toudo, then at Seto again. Finally, he remembered, through his shock, that Toudo was the last person who was in the room with Kaiba. He shot up from his seat and advanced towards Naoya, who was leaning against his desk with the most mystifying smile that Yami found unworldly annoying.  
  
Snarling, Yami gripped the blue turtleneck collar and glared into Naoya's eyes; gold flames calming dancing in the face of fiery red ones. "You!" Yami shouted, "What did you do to Seto?!"  
  
"Hey, I don't remember ever being on first name terms with you!" Kaiba retorted, still on the hospital bed.  
  
"Shut UP, Seto!" Yami shouted, not even bothering to look at Kaiba right now. The face just seemed to bother him so much with his whirl-pooling emotions. Besides, he had a prey inside his hand, and such a mysteriously ANNOYING prey wasn't one he would allow his gaze to stray from. Continuing his accusation, Yami glared heatedly at Naoya as seething words burned upon his tongue. "What did you do.?" Mokuba, seeing that the situation was wrong, jumped down from the bed immediately and ran towards the two of them, trying to stand in between them. "Yami, what are you doing?" he shouted, "Toudo-san would never do such a thing! He's a good person!" Yami ignored him and bared his teeth at Naoya, who found this quite amusing it seemed.  
  
"Patched him up free of charge," Naoya said finally, smiling. He didn't seem worried at all that Yami was gripping his collar. Perhaps it was because he didn't know the abundant powers the once-Pharaoh held, or perhaps it was because he knew and was confident enough that he can defeat it. As much as the first one sounded more plausible to Yami's mind, the way he felt as he stared into those gold eyes made him feel like the situation was more like the second. Looking down at the pleading eyes of Mokuba, he released Naoya's collar and stepped back, his gaze still unwavering.  
  
"Then why is he like this?" Yami pressed. "Even with his mind stuck in short-term memory, he still remembered me.up until we brought him in here and left him with you."  
  
"Are you sure?" Naoya tested. "Maybe it's because of what you did that made him like this.it sounds so Freudian, really. The way he suppresses his memories of you after you harmed him so much. A part of his soul remembers, you know.if he were to act like the way he did in front of you." He laughed lightly and shrugged, shaking his head. "But that's such fantasy talk. I'm a doctor of the hardware, ask Maki if you would like to know what happened to him. Maybe it's best if I asked her to stay with you guys for now." Yami looked apprehensive about the idea of letting Maki stay with them, but he figured that as of now he couldn't do much for Seto, and what Naoya said was partially right; he had been the one who caused Kaiba to stab himself in a fit of rage. He took another step back and studied Naoya, his gaze flickering over that smile. "I'll call her," Yami replied, "But I'm not making any promises."  
  
Toudo shrugged and pushed himself upright, away from the desk, and looked down at Yami. He reached for his clipboard and looked at the documents, and then at Kaiba, who was staring at the both of them incredulously. "You can take him home now," he concluded after a moment's deliberation. Mokuba, hearing that news, went and fetched his brother off the crisp, white infirmary bed and lead him to the door. As they were leaving, Yami glared at him one last time before he stepped out of the darkening office due to the setting sun. Naoya's golden eyes saw them off and then he turned to look at his chess pieces, picking one up and setting it down, advancing towards his unseen opponent's side.  
  
"Will you put him out of his misery.?"  
  
***  
  
Maki sat back and sighed as she turned off the flashlight that she had shone into Seto's one eye and then sent him off to bed, proclaiming that he had not been getting enough sleep. Kaiba nodded, obeying her for reasons even he did not know, something in the back of his mind telling him that he had known her for some time, and set out for his room.  
  
The ancient Egyptian spirit had been watching Maki examine and question Kaiba the minute she stepped into the house. Mokuba had been trying to keep Kaiba company and understand the situation, but being that he wasn't a professional, he eventually had to give up and was sent to bed by Seto. For the next few minutes, Kaiba and Yami had sat silently in the living room with Yami sitting backwards on a chair, his head leaning on the backrest of the chair. Never once did his eyes leave Seto's form, even though he knew that the man hated to be stared at, but he couldn't help it. Something inside him thirsted to touch Seto, to hold him within his arms and claim him as his own, and thus he stared. But also, there was a part of him that wished for nothing more than to strangle Seto. He had to admit, in his own sickening shame, that he had felt triumphant when Seto stabbed himself. When he stared at Seto, his mind flickered from intense lust to insatiable hatred, his crimson eyes moving from every part of Seto's body to suddenly concentrate on that slender white throat that he would realize a second later that he wanted so much to crush within his fingers. This process was repeated over and over until Maki rang the doorbell and Yami went and got the door despite Kaiba's protests. Though Maki's presence had helped with Yami's staring and fantasizing (whether it was good or bad), it still didn't help that much.  
  
Only when he had finished his trek upstairs and the sound of his door closing was heard did Yami speak up. He fidgeted on the chair as he searched for words to form into good enough sentences; he always felt so childish in front of Maki for some reason. "So.what's wrong with him? Why can't he remember me?"  
  
Maki sighed again and placed the flashlight into her bag, turning on her chair to look at Yami. "It would seem that there are two separate memories inside him, Yami" she explained. "I would think that it shouldn't be that big of a surprise to you." She added this when she saw Yami's passive reaction; there was only a hint of shock that she had picked this up so quickly. "But anyway." she continued, "Before, when he still remembered you, it would seem to be because the line between his one memory entity and the other one is quite blurred. If not for the other memory entity, he would have not remembered you at all because his memories of you are based from your rivalry with each other in Dueling Monsters. Now that his memory of ever playing Dueling Monsters is gone, his memory of you should have diminished at that very moment. But the other memory entity forced him to remember.and now for some reason the lines have been clearly drawn so that the other memory can't affect him, and thus he can no longer remember you."  
  
Yami started violently inside his seat, almost falling off at that explanation. "Wh-why did it wait so long?!" he protested stubbornly. If only Seth hadn't been popping up, then maybe he wouldn't be so messed up in this sort of love-hate emotion that even he couldn't sort out! Maki shrugged, shaking her head. "I don't know, might be trauma, might be the virus.could be anything," she said. "Or maybe an outside force acting upon it." Hearing that, Yami shot up from his seat and gripped Maki's shoulders. "Speaking of which!" he exclaimed, shocking the woman in her chair. Seeing how he was a bit out of line and how he frightened her, Yami stepped back and coughed a bit before he went on. "About Toudo.how long have you known him?"  
  
"Naoya?" she asked, confused at what this had to do with anything. "I've been friends with him ever since he was a little kid. We were neighbors ever since we were born."  
  
"Do you have a photo of him when he was little?" Yami didn't buy that too easily; something inside him was so suspicious he was almost willing to make the assumption that Naoya was something like a vampire or demon. Maki nodded and reached into her bag, producing a wallet. Opening it up, she pulled out an old photo that was worn on the edges and looked like it was torn on one side, a third of it missing. Accepting it, Yami looked at the photo, studying it. Unmistakably, there was Maki on the photo, her orange- brown eyes looking cheerfully at whoever was taking the photo, her chubby little arms encircled around a boy next to her.a boy with blue-black hair and golden eyes. The young boy was smiling just as cheerfully, a smile that was completely different from the ones that Naoya exhibited now. Checking the corner of the photo, Yami sighed when he saw the date "June 6, 1983," diminishing whatever idea Yami had in his head that Naoya was a vampire-demon. Nodding his thanks, Yami handed the photo back to Maki, who put it back into her wallet after looking at it in a way that Yami thought was wistful. He heaved a huge sigh and plopped down into a chair next to Maki, his eyes staring up at the ceiling. "I guess I was wrong," he muttered more to himself than Maki. She turned and looked at him, her eyes narrowing.  
  
"You have bags under your eyes," she pointed out, "I think it's best if you go to bed as well.it's been a long day. For both of you." To say the truth, Yami couldn't have agreed more; his head felt like it was going to split from all the conflicting emotions, and he didn't really want to stay up for another minute to try and sort them out. A hand covered his mouth as he yawned loudly, and he stood up to go to the room Mokuba assigned him, and he watched Maki's retreating form as she started for her room.  
  
*** "Your Highness, what are you looking for?" a servant asked as he passed Yami in the hallway. The Pharaoh seemed absolutely hostile with anger, and it took him everything to not snap at the servant. How dare he! How dare Seth run away from his chambers at such a critical time! Just the idea that he's wandering around the hallways could kill him. Swirling around, he glared at the servant with burning red eyes. "I'm searching for Seth! Where is he?!" The servant, taken back, stared back at the Pharaoh. "He said that he wanted to meet you by the red Horus structure, he needs to talk to you or something."  
  
That's not true.  
  
The sand shifted and cushioned Yami's feet as he ran towards the garden he had made with the land he was allotted during his childhood days. As he neared the garden, he smelled the sweet scent of the hundreds if not thousands of flowers that resided in the garden, their aroma mixing with the salty smell of the ocean both he and Seth loved so much.  
  
"Maybe he's come to his senses," Yami said to himself hopefully. Reaching the red bone-like structure he had built by the edge of the cliff, he saw the object of his obsessions standing next to it. The paler teen was dressed in a white cloak that fell around his arms, and he seemed to be waiting. Upon seeing Yami, Seth turned around and sneered at Yami, his mouth working with words that were drowned out by the sound of the ocean beneath them.  
  
What are you saying? I can't hear you too well.  
  
Before Yami could open his mouth to voice the thoughts he pondered, he saw a flash of silver and then intense pain shot through his body. He screamed, his own voice deafening him.  
  
Sweat drenched his body as Yami sat up in his bed, his breaths heaving his chest as he tried to shake off the dreams inside his head. A hand pressed upon his drying lips, fingers shaking as he swallowed back his nauseam. The pain inside his body was still strong, and he couldn't pinpoint where it came from, but he knew that was probably one of the worst moments in his life 3000 years ago. Sighing, Yami got up and walked to the bathroom to get a glass of water, and he studied his pallid face in the mirror. The situation right now was really not help his health, and he felt guilty that his predicament was putting Yuugi's health in jeopardy, but he just had to do something for Kaiba. The dreams he was having now wasn't really helping, either, for they either made him lust after the youth more or made him hate him even more, which the last vision he saw was doing very well. Shaking his head, Yami decided to go downstairs and maybe watch a little bit of TV or something that might sooth him and lull him to sleep, considering what is aired during these hours of the day.  
  
Upon reaching the living room downstairs, Yami made the decision at the last minute to get some warm milk, and managed to not make too much of a clamor in the dark kitchen as he got the drink. Settling down in front of the TV, he sighed and turned on the boob tube with a remote, watching some old Chinese movie. Taking a sip of his warm milk, Yami nearly spat it out when his eyes picked up a figure by the edge of the living room doorway. Standing there in all of his pale splendor was Kaiba Seto, wrapped up in a long white sheet that he had pulled from his bed, reminding Yami of that dream.where Seth was in that godly-white cloak.  
  
"Why do you wear white, Seth.? Is it to try and cover up your impurity?"  
  
The brunet cocked his head slightly at Yami, at the sound of the television, and approached the seated former-ruler slowly, if not cautiously. "What are you doing, Yami?" whispered a soft voice.  
  
"W-what did you call me?" Yami asked, setting down his mug. His hopes shot up; could it be that Seto remembered him, all of a sudden, out of the blue? Another step was taken by the other youth before he stopped completely in his tracks and backed up slightly.  
  
"Sorry," the same silky voice whispered again. "'Pharaoh.'" Those pale hands gathered up the sheet around his shoulders and Seto stood there, studying Yami's movements, seeing whether or not he may move again. Yami sighed, seeing that this was "the other memory" that Maki was talking about. But it wasn't like he didn't have the same turmoil of emotions towards this creature; in fact, he was the source of his emotions towards Kaiba Seto. He raised a hand and motioned Seth over to him, and the ghost of a memory from three millennia ago who inhabited the body of the CEO carried himself over to Yami and sat down next to the shorter teen. In a swift motion, Seth laid his head onto Yami's lap and wound his arms around the thin waist, burying his face into Yami's stomach, the sheets around him slipping off his shoulders. By the lack of hesitation in his actions as he did this, it would seem that he's done this many times before with Yami, it's just that the ancient Pharaoh couldn't remember it with all his cursed memory-span.  
  
"Couldn't sleep?" the hot breath tickled against Yami's belly through the thin summer shirt. Those brilliant blue eyes were closed leisurely, as though sleeping, but the lips moved in fluttering motions as he spoke. A breath caught in Yami's throat as he saw how defenseless Seto.Seth seemed like this, just lying on the couch by him, head on his lap, arms around his waist, and talking to him. Moonlight spilled from the skylight above, showering upon the two of them and painting Seth's pale skin a hauntingly beautiful shade of glowing blue-white. His delicate, smooth skin looked like a flawless terrain of white jade just excavated from the mountains so pure and ancient that it glowed in arcane beauty. With each steady raise and fall of Seth's chest and shoulders from his soft breathing, his muscles carried out a small ripple of light with his movements, breaking the purity with shadows for one second and then restoring them only to repeat the process again and again.  
  
"N-no, I couldn't," Yami answered after a moment's trance. He gasped as he felt the soft hair brush against the skin of his legs that his shorts didn't cover when Seth nodded in his lap and went silent again. For a moment, all Yami could hear was the blood rushing inside his head from his thumping heart and the soft breathing of Seth against his stomach. As though the ending summer days weren't hot enough already.  
  
"I couldn't, either," Seth admitted, his embrace on Yami's waist tightening ever-so-slightly. He sighed into the soft material of Yami's t-shirt and the wearer bit back a moan as his belly was tickled again. "I keep having nightmares."  
  
"What kind?" Yami asked, wanting to know exactly what he was seeing as well. He wanted desperately to know exactly what those dreams meant. His palm felt at the smooth forehead obscured by the brown bangs and he gasped audibly. "You're burning up with a fever!" One blue eye silted open to also be kissed by the moonlight, and moved in the direction of the television, narrowing as it contacted the sharpness of the cathode rays in the darkened room. "Hmmm. It's not a big deal. What are you watching?" the voice questioned, its owner apparently trying to avoid the question at all costs. He shook off the concern of Yami towards his condition and the other can only hope that the raise in body heat was from the summer heat.  
  
"'Ba Wong Bei Gi,'" Yami said lazily, looking at the guide on the television screen as he pressed the command button for that feature. "About some Chinese warlord who was losing his country and his battle and he chooses to kill himself by a river to preserve his honor. His concubine kills herself afterwards, I think."  
  
"They sound pitiful," Seth commented, looking and yet not looking at the screen with his clouded blue eyes. The blue iris moved back to look at the blackness of Yami's t-shirt before heavy lids curtained over them again. A sigh was heard over the low volume of the television.  
  
"Of course they do," Yami protested, gesturing at the screen even though he knew that Seth was no longer looking. "It's a Chinese Opera! They always sound like tortured weasels." This comment got him a small laugh from Seth, and the torrent of heated breaths sent shocks through Yami's body, and his thumb twitched, making him turn off the television. It wasn't like he minded anyway; the movie was too depressing anyway. For the next few moments, he allowed himself to listen to the soft breathing of Seth, of the entity that was staying inside this glorious body.  
  
Do I love Kaiba Seto, or do I overlap the image of Seth with him and confuse this feeling?  
  
A finger trailed down the pale cheek, and Seth stirred but did not make a move to release himself from the warmth of this position; Yami didn't want him to, either, and he ventured deeper with his touches. This time he allowed a hand instead of just a finger to stroke at the softness of Seth's face, and then flicked at one delicate earlobe that had been pierced 3000 years ago in Seth's body, and finally raking through the soft russet hair. The figure clinging to him purred and moved closer, seemingly asleep now. Yami smiled at how cat-like this boy was and traced those moonlight-kissed lips that were coldly rosy under the lingering blueness of Selene's face. Red eyes narrowed, however, at the notion that perhaps by tomorrow morning this fleeting image will all be gone and the other entity will take over again and forget him completely. He wanted Seth to stay with him, but he also wanted to see the defiant and heated nature of Kaiba. It was then that Yami realized that he wanted both of them, but the company he sought from one might be different from the other.or not.  
  
"Seth." he whispered. When the other did not answer, Yami allowed his heart and hand to venture, turning the beautiful face away from his stomach to face upwards as he wasn't contented with seeing only the profile of the face. His thumb played lightly at those luscious lips, and they opened just a bit to let out air as Seth continued to sleep. It had been a long time since he'd last tasted those lips.  
  
Leaning down, Yami placed his lips onto the ones that belonged to the body beneath him, embracing him, whether it was Kaiba or Seth, he did not care. Their lips made contact and moved as Yami deepened the kiss and Kaiba's, in an attempt for more air, opened them more only to enable Yami's tongue to slip in. But Yami did not stay long inside that sweet warmth, afraid that he would awaken the slumbering boy, and he pulled back.  
  
"Seth." he summoned the name again, just liking how it rolled off his tongue. He pulled the sheets around the body upwards so that it covered the shoulders as well, not only because he was afraid that the body would catch cold, but also because of his fear of his growing libido. He shuddered despite the heat of the ending summer night and shifted his position on the couch even though it will do him no good in waking up with a pair of sore thighs, and fell into his own respective slumber.  
  
"Why do you wear white, Seth? Is it to cover up your impurity?"  
  
"Impurity caused by you and your selfishness!"  
  
Yes, I'll admit it. I was selfish.but I was selfish to save you. If Egypt.no, if the world was on one side of a scale and you were on the other, you would outweigh the world in importance, don't you know that?  
  
"I love you."  
  
"LIAR!"  
  
There was a flash of silver, and the same pain shot through his body like before.  
  
Yami blinked and awoke, sighing from the vividness of those strange dreams again. Hearing something like whimpers, he saw that the teen clinging to him was also suffering from a restless sleep. He sighed and placed his hand on the pale cheek, whispering soothing Egyptian words to calm the memories swirling inside the one body.  
  
"I would let you stay in the kingdom if you'll beg, Seth," the man snickered, the crown on his head reflecting the high-noon sun with such splendor it was hard to see his features, but the sneer on his face was unmistakable. "Beg for my forgiveness, and then maybe I would allow you to stay behind.and be my bed whore. Maybe after a few years of your service I would let you to become a Royal Harbinger. Your powers in predicting the futures are.admirable."  
  
Seth snarled, struggling under the grasp of three guards who hand fought him down. Several others had failed in trying to bring him down and became victims to his magic before a magical force-field was erected to prevent the use of magic within the palace walls. He lowered his head and muttered something.  
  
"What was that? I can't hear you," the arrogant man said, approaching the captured youth. As he lessened the distance between the two of them, Seth raised his head sharply and spat in his face, earning him a harsh slap.  
  
"How dare you!" the man snarled, wiping the spit off. "If it's banishment you want, I'll give you banishment!"  
  
"Well, then," Seth whispered as he was being dragged away, "Let me give you this prediction, O Great PHARAOH." He raised his head in what looked like sadistic triumph as he pressed these words out, his teeth bared in a cruel smile. "Your kingdom will FALL. Your decedents will overthrow you.and you will become nothing but a stain on the books of history. I will sit back and watch, in my banishment, at your downfall!"  
  
A shrill laugh was all that accompanied him until he woke, the voice his own.  
  
To be continued.  
  
Well, now it's Yami's turn to have weird, cryptic dreams. But at least his seem to be clearing some mysteries up, aren't they? I hope that his dream didn't throw anyone off too much.  
  
Sorry that this chapter was really short compared to the other ones, but this one I just kind of put in as a bridge to the later chapters. Another reason is probably because I?had been in a bad mood recently.accounting class is a real wrecking ball to my brain. So to commemorate accounting class, the plot will thicken, the characters will go mad, and maybe even a lemon scene?! Thank you all again for all of your generous reviews! They are truly what make me keep writing!  
  
This chapter was originally going to be much shorter, but then I got inspired at work and edited/lengthened it to make it not as boring as it would have been, and to also emphasize the relationship between Yami and Seth as well as Yami's emotions towards the two memories inside that one body.  
  
Also, the Chinese Opera "Ba Wong Bei Gi" does indeed exist, I'm not sure whether or not it's "Goodbye My Concubine" in the English translations.but I doubt it. It sounds like a completely different thing in my opinion. I've only heard one line of the Chinese Opera "Ba Wong Bei Gi" (which literally translated means "Warlord Farewells to Concubine"), and it was a man singing in a shrill voice "It seems to me that today is the day you and I separate!" It's all very sad, from what I heard from my mother.  
  
Happy Chinese New Years to everyone! (2/1/03) 


	13. Blue Curacao

Sorry this chapter was so late.I have been bitten by the inspiration bug for drawing and was drawing for the past weeks.sorry. This chapter has non consensual sex.and what that means in layman's terms is: "rape." So if you can't stand n/c yaoi lemons, then please don't read. There's also cursing in this chapter, btw.  
  
Also, since there are so many flashbacks in this chapter and FF.net does not allow italics, I've put the flashbacks in between // marks for your convenience. Once again, thank you all for your generous reviews (though I have been getting fewer recently).  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the YuGiOh characters or the Persona characters.whether it'd be the ones that's been here since chapter one or the ones that are just starting to pop up like mushrooms. The only things I can probably lay claim to are their acts of insanity, lust, and.basic seven deadly sins. Yeah.  
  
Chapter 13-Blue Curacao  
  
//"Why didn't you wake up sooner?" "I.didn't want to wake from the dream."//  
  
Yami sat at the edge of his bed, his wine-colored eyes staring into Yuugi's violet ones, both of them determined to be the first one to stare the other down.  
  
"Sometimes I really hate you, you know," Yami muttered, sighing. He had lost the staring contest when Yuugi suddenly pulled puppy eyes on him, something that he could never win against even when he was the King of Games. He ran a hand through his spiky and surprisingly not stiff hair, heaving yet another sigh.  
  
"You know that I'm right though," Yuugi retorted, crossing his arms in front of his chest at the half-transparent spirit sitting on the edge of his bed. Yami had fled from the Kaiba mansion the morning after the whole couch incident, scolding himself for attempting to take advantage of Seth in his state, and he stayed at Yuugi's house for a week before Yuugi physically dragged him back to the house, insisting that Seto needed him. When they got to the front door, Yuugi just nonchalantly hid back into his soul room like that day he hooked Anzu up on that atrocious date, leaving him stranded alone with the body in his control. Apparently he had ringed the doorbell to the Kaiba mansion with his body before he locked the door of his soul room, for a few minutes later Maki came and opened the door. Just as the large wooden door swung open, the psychotherapist took a glance at Yami and narrowed her eyes. The ancient spirit threw his hands up in exasperation and then put them on his hips. "I'm sorry for running off, but I'm sure you guys fared well enough without me, right?" he asked, trying to make the awkward conversation light. The façade that Maki wore, however, told him otherwise. Her orange-brown eyes almost burned with irrepressible anger, the wrath inside her soul just swarming behind those fire-colored irises. Yami gulped audibly and grunted as she grabbed his arm with that same amazing strength she used to carry Kaiba around and dragged him inside the house.  
  
"Good," she said, the anger suddenly turning into relief. "Maybe now he'll eat." Before Yami can ask her what she was talking about, she spun him around on his heels and began to herd him upstairs. It would seem that it took her only a week to figure out where everything in the house was, since it took her only five minutes to find Kaiba's room. On the way there, Yami tried to figure out what she meant by saying "maybe now he'll eat," but when he went into the room the situation became clear.  
  
Pallid. Pale. Ashen. How many other ways can Yami abuse the thesaurus when he saw Kaiba on the bed, his head nearly dripping blood at the sight before his eyes. Seto's head was settled onto a small, comfortable hill of soft pillows, his soft brown hair cascading around his head in a russet halo. His face was turned slightly to the side, his breathing causing a small wisp of his hair to be carried with each soft exhale. His thick long eyelashes touched his high cheeks, fluttering ever so often in the state of REM that he was in. But what made Yami's heart as well as stomach truly wretch was the thin plastic tube that intruded into Seto's skin and flesh through a fine needle. The tube connected to a plastic bag that hung over Seto's head on a metal pole, the tube feeding nutrients into the thin, ailing body. The pale wrist that served as the receiver of the fluids rested over Kaiba's raising and falling chest, over the layer of blankets that had been placed over him.  
  
"I thought his condition was only psychological," Yami whispered, tearing his eyes from Kaiba's form to place an accusing look at Maki, who returned it to him with full force. "It is still a bit physical because of the root of the problem," Maki explained. "Also, he was fine until you ran off.and then he started to regurgitate everything he ate. Eventually we took him off of solid food because it was hurting his stomach as well as esophagus to risk him doing this over and over again. We've asked Naoya to bring us these IVs since I think that you wouldn't want him to be sent to the hospital where everyone can find out about his condition."  
  
"Are you sure there's nothing weird in there?" Yami asked, suspicious of what may come from that Toudo Naoya character. Maki shot him a "are you joking" look and sighed, going to check Seto's pulse and the flow rate of the IV tube. She then turned around to face Yami. "I need you to talk to him when he wakes up today.see if he'll eat then," she requested.  
  
And thus this is why Yami and Yuugi were now sitting in the room they were assigned to in the Kaiba mansion, trying to stare each other down. Yami wanted to help, very much so, but he was also afraid of his memories going haywire if he were to be faced with Seto. It would also seem that it had to be Yami that went, not Yuugi. When Yami was about to leave the young CEO's room the sleeping form had stirred and murmured something that sounded like a protest. Never before did.that body.show such familiarity to Yuugi, whether it was Seto or Seth residing in there and taking control. Yami looked up at Yuugi and found, to his dismay that the boy was still looking down at him.  
  
"It's been three hours since we've been sitting here," Yuugi complained. "It's almost dinnertime, maybe you should go to him." Yami tilted his head defiantly to the side, avoiding Yuugi's gaze and the other boy visibly fumed, going to Yami and pulling at one gold bang. "Go!" he shouted over Yami's yelping, the both of them very out of character. "Go and see if he wants to eat! I won't let go of your bangs until you do!" So here Yami was, the great King of Games, being threatened by his own light to go and tell someone to eat something, his hair being held hostage. He growled and put his hands up, surrendering, and stood up. With a huff, he stalked to Kaiba's room, hoping that the young businessman was still asleep so that he wouldn't have to wake the man up, or worse yet, stare at his vulnerable sleeping form again.  
  
For better or for worse, by some grace or cruel joke of a god, Kaiba was sitting up at his bed when Yami opened the door to the large bedroom. The curtains were drawn on the large French doors that led to the balcony outside as well as over the windows, and a small bedside lamp was lit next to Kaiba. The soft yellow-orange light created an illusion over Kaiba's skin, making it look as though it were warmed up. The light, however, also cast a shadow over some of the gauntness that was starting to show on Kaiba's face. Those once-healthy features now look ghostly, places where full flesh had once been had been sliced away cruelly by fatigue and wear, just a bit sunken in. He didn't look like death, but malnourished. Yellow- orange rays danced in those half-lidded blue eyes as they skimmed across the printed lines of a worn magazine that has apparently been read over and over again since he can't remember the last page he read after he turned it. Yami made a small noise in the back of his throat to get the ailing boy's attention and Seto picked his head up, narrowing his eyes at the sight of Yami.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked, putting the magazine away and reaching for something in his bedside drawer cautiously. Yami didn't think that he would want to find out exactly what it was and put his hands up. "I'm a friend of Mokuba's," Yami answered. Every time Kaiba regarded him with those eyes of a stranger or asked him who he was, it felt like a stab to his chest, and now was no different. "He's out with Maki, and he wanted me to check if you were hungry," Yami continued. It was true, Maki and Mokuba were at the Kaiba corporation office, trying to figure out some things with an offer for a merger and some other complicated contracts that needed the files stored at Seto's elaborate office. They probably will be out all night, considering what kind of person Mokuba was and what kind of person Maki was. One phrase to describe would be: nocturnal creatures. He was surprised that Maki didn't look like she was a panda yet from all the times he would catch her working well into the early morning hours with Mokuba.  
  
The thinning hand drew out from the drawer empty, closing it and then its owner regarded Yami for another second before a loud growling of a stomach sounded through the room. Faint color came over Seto's pale cheeks and he opened the second drawer on the bedside dresser, pulling out a wallet for Yami. "Here," he said, "There's nothing in the kitchen.so just go to the nearest convenience store and get something to eat." Amused smile suppressed, Yami edged over to Seto and pulled the thick wallet from the weak hands, noting at how little effort he had to give to get the wallet from Seto-it was practically falling from the frail hand. "What would you like?" Yami asked, stuffing the wallet into the deck pouch on one of his two belts. Seto considered for a brief moment and answered with a simple: "Anything that's not chock full of preservatives." The request itself was a bit impossible, but Yami was sure he can think up of something and nodded, walking out of the room and out of the house.  
  
The walk to the convenience store was uneventful, to say the least. Yuugi was doing something inside his soul room, probably playing with the many games and toys scattered in there, and the chilly autumn air turned off the prospect of coming out for a lot of the people in the neighborhood. Yami sighed and pulled his thin autumn jacket around him as he stopped momentarily in front of the automatic door at the 7-11 entrance, waiting for the door to whoosh open before he stepped in. He figured that considering the condition Seto was in, the man was probably not in the physical state to eat something as heavy as ramen, and there were too many "preservatives" in there. He wondered about why in the world the people of this era would put those things in their food since he had once overheard Yuugi's mother telling Yuugi that if he ate too much cup ramen he would become a mummy from all the preservatives. Shuddering, Yami skipped the instant ramen aisle and to the freezer section where all the microwave food and rice balls were. His eyes skimmed the shelves and figured that it would probably do Seto some good if he drank something with a bit of bacteria in there, having been informed by Maki that he was on some antibiotics for a small cold he had caught a few weeks ago. But as he looked for the Calpis, he noticed that they were all gone, right down to the small pouches and the mix to make your own. The ancient spirit cursed and slammed the freezer doors closed and pulled a few bento boxes from an adjacent shelf. Suddenly, a bottle of Calpis Water drifted under his nose, someone was handing one to him. Turning around, Yami stared at the man who had handed it to him. He found himself staring into a pair of gold eyes, at a young man with spiky blue-black hair dressed in a coat that was slightly too heavy for the early autumn as well as yarn-knitted brown gloves.  
  
"Toudo?!" he whispered hoarsely. The hospital was the exact opposite direction to this convenience store! What was he doing here? The young man cocked his head at the quiet exclamation and then smiled. "Oh," he said, "You must be thinking of Naoya. But I'm not him." Upon hearing that, Yami narrowed his eyes at the man, taking a better look. The near- carbon copy of Toudo Naoya was indeed a bit different now that he's had a better look. This version had longer bangs that nearly covered his eyes completely, and those eyes were slightly different as well. Even though they were gold, at certain angles they looked almost a metallic blue-gray, much like a strange glass orb that reflected colors in many different ways. And, at closer inspection, this one had no piercings on his ears, and his smile wasn't as hollow as Naoya's, but was unnerving in its own method since the two of them looked so much alike. His voice was also slightly deeper, like thick velvet to Naoya's silk. Yami struggled to comprehend this doppelganger, stepping back as the man continued to offer him the last bottle of Calpis Water.  
  
"I'm Kazuya," the man informed Yami, "I am Naoya's twin brother.I'm wondering if you may tell me where the hospital he works at is since you seem to know him. I've been away from the country for a few years and I would like to see him." Dazed at the sudden appearance of a twin that Naoya never mentioned, Yami took the Calpis bottle and then used it to point in the general direction of the hospital. Seeing the direction that Yami was pointing at, a troubled expression came over Kazuya's face and he frowned. "Ah, man," he muttered, pulling out a map from his pocket, "It's the opposite direction! This map is upside down." He sighed and pressed the map back into his pocket, smiling gratefully at Yami before brushing past the former Pharaoh. "I suggest you hurry up and do something," he whispered as he stepped away from the frozen food aisle, "Or else, by the time the petals of blood are dancing in the wind, you won't be able to save his 'ka.'" One gloved hand patted Yami's thin shoulder and lifted, almost covering Yami's face before it drifted away. Crimson eyes widened at the words and he whirled around on his heels just in time to see Kazuya wave and walk out of the convenience store, leaving Yami alone to his thoughts.  
  
"What did he mean by that..?"  
  
//A flash of silver gleamed under the high-noon sun and then a shimmer of gold followed it, mixed with specks of red like petals flying in the wind. Standing across from him was Seth, expression unreadable as the red petals fell onto the white cloak the brunet wore. Pain shot through Yami's body as he stumbled towards Seth, a sickening and alien coldness slipping out of him as he did so, his fingers clutching at Seth's cloak. He struggled to speak as something thick gagged his lips, pressing his tongue down in his mouth and gluing it there.  
  
"Traitor."//  
  
"Hey Yuugi!" Yami heard a voice call out and he found himself back in the middle of the frozen food aisle of the 7-11. Turning around, Yami saw Jounouchi walk up to him, smiling and waving. "Oh, it's Yami," Jounouchi said, noting the taller stature of the Egyptian. "How are you doing? We haven't seen you around in along time." Yami smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Been a bit busy with certain things."  
  
//A blond youth ran into the palace and bowed in front of the throne, not genuflecting due to his on-the-run job. His words were almost incoherent, obstructed by the huffing pants that found their way out of his lips. "Your Highness, I have terrible news from the peasant's regions!" the captain of the royal guards shouted as soon as he caught his breath. "I've just witnessed something that would confirm the horrible rumors recently.the High Priest.Seth.he has indeed been abusing his powers as High Priest to hunt the ka of the innocent." Honey-brown eyes squeezed shut at the obvious and nearly radiating anger of the Pharaoh and Yami stood up, his eyes narrowed dangerously at the news. "Bring me Seth!" he boomed.//  
  
A hand shaking Yami's shoulder brought him out of his second stupor of the day and Yami's eyes flew to the face of his former captain of the royal guards. "S-sorry, Jono.Jounouchi," Yami faltered, "I guess I'm a bit dazed. I'll see you around." With that, he went and paid for dinner, leaving a confused Jounouchi scratching his head by the freezers.  
  
"I need a drink," Yami muttered to himself as he exited the 7-11. When he returned home, he immediately went to Kaiba's room, ignoring the strange glance he got from the CEO as he dropped the food unceremoniously on Seto's lap before he turned around and left as quickly as he went in. Seto looked at Yami, confused, but then opened the bento box and ate slowly, the taste of the non-gourmet food stale on his tongue. While he ate, Yami stalked towards the library of the large mansion, remembering that there was a wet bar there that Kaiba kept, probably left behind by the youth's adoptive father. Upon finding it, Yami pulled the glass cabinets open and searched around for something that would hopefully placate the horrible flashes of memory that just seemed to bubble from his mind at an alarming rate. His eyes caught a tall bottle of blue liquid, the color of Seto's eyes. Pulling that from the shelf, Yami apologized silently to Yuugi for a would- be ruining session of Yuugi's liver and screwed open the cap. With a light tilt of the bottle, Yami downed a sip of the contents, hunching his back quickly after one swig, nearly choking. The wine was thick and tasted of citrus despite its blue shade, and there was a heavy spiciness that showed the potency of alcohol. Yami turned the bottle in his hand and studied the bottle: "Blue Curacao." He made a scoff, even the bottle was mocking him in its essence, reminding him of the man upstairs who just continued to inject poisonous hatred and love into his mind.  
  
//"Don't touch me, Pharaoh," the voice whispered in the darkness. Those blue eyes seemed to melt into the night with its icy blueness, and Yami could only look into them.into the deep pools of cerulean that was so close and yet so far.//  
  
A deep growl escaped Yami's throat and he grabbed a glass and poured the blue spiciness into it, taking another drink of the thick alcohol. Carrying the bottle and the glass with him, he walked up the staircase and opened the door to Seto's room. Soft breathing could be heard through the room, indicating slumber on the part of the brunet. That slumber, however, was broken when Yami shut the door behind him, the lock clicking in place. The figure on the bed sat up and cloudy blue eyes looked towards the direction of the sound and focused on Yami. "Yami?" whispered the voice. Walking over, Yami made a sound of affirmation and sat down on the edge of the bed. Blue eyes blinked at the smell of alcohol in Yami's breath and he backed away. Yami, however, grabbed the collar of the youth in front of him with one hand, and, with his other, emptied the rest of the glass into his own mouth before pressing his lips against Seto's. A moan of protest escaped those soft, vulnerable lips and Yami took the chance to empty the blue alcohol into the sweet mouth, sending a thick trail of blue down the pale chin. He then set the glass down on the bedside table and pressed the taller of the two onto the bed, lips still locked. It was only when his prey made a small gagging noise beneath him that Yami pulled back, half- lidded vermillion eyes glaring down at confused blue ones.  
  
"Pharaoh?" panted the one beneath Yami, indicating that he was Seth.  
  
"So you're Seth," Yami whispered hotly, leaning down to claim those lips again before he was shoved away by Seth's weak hands. He only moved back due to the fact that he had not expected Seth to fight back, but now that he thought about it, it was in the former High Priest's nature to fight. No matter.  
  
"What are you doing?" Seth murmured, hands on Yami's shoulders, keeping a distance between their faces. "Why are you-" Whatever he was going to say was cut off by another fierce kiss, then a tongue trailed down his chin, lapping up the spilt wine on his skin. A gasp escaped the kiss-bruised lips when he felt Yami's hands tear at his shirt, sending buttons flying. Only then did the thought of what might happen register inside Seth's mind and he began to shove violently at Yami, as weak as he was. His struggling earned him a backhand across his cheek, sending his head rocking against the pillows, the blow not as painful thanks to their cushioning effect. Before he could give another protest, Yami pressed the mouth of the Blue Curacao bottle to Seth's, draining the liquid into the mouth. Seth nearly choked from the liquid, and Yami pulled the bottle away only to replace its place on Seth's mouth with his invading lips. His fingers messaged at Seth's throat, coaxing the man beneath him to swallow the liquid. Seth had to comply, and the alcohol hit him immediately, him never having been a good drinker.  
  
//"Come, let's all drink to celebrate the return of Seth!" the Pharaoh announced, raising his golden goblet. Seth raised his lightly and dipped his head in a small bow as he smiled, pretending to sip at his wine. He sniffed the wine and then made an inaudible gasp, his nose having picked up poison in the wine. Standing up, he reached for Yami's goblet and quickly downed the fine wine inside, the spiciness covering the bitterness of poison in the wine.//  
  
A pale hand lifted to wipe at the wine that trailed down his cheek, but was grabbed in a crushing grip and pressed against the pillows. Just to be safe, the other hand was also captured and pressed next to Seth's head. Yami loomed over Seth's form, his eyes full of swirling emotions that almost made Seth gasp if not for the fact that Yami bent down and bit harshly at his collarbone, drawing a fine bit of blood. "It's all your fault," Yami whispered into the cut, letting his tongue trace down the line of blood and then to the exposed chest. "It's all your fault that Seto is like this, it's all your fault that I am seeing these things." He knew it was unreasonable to put this blame on Seth, but at the moment, he put the blame of his unreasonable accusations on the alcohol. Shaking the guilt away, he placed his lips over a nipple, wrenching a whimper from Seth due to the tingling feeling it gave from the essence of wine and citrus. The sound delighted Yami and he suckled on the pink bit of flesh, listening to the whimpering noises that he drew from Seth.  
  
"Don't do this, Yami!"  
  
//"Why do you wear white, Seth? Is it to mask your impurity?"//  
  
Seth's body felt hot from the alcohol as well as the fever he seemed to always be inflicted by when he was in control of the body, and Yami's hands felt cold against the fine skin. He had released Seth's hands, having dislocated the arms from the sockets in the shoulders so that they lied uselessly next to Seth's body, fingers twitching from time to time from the sensations that Yami was administering onto his body. The former Pharaoh had now allowed his fingers to replace his lips on each of Seth's hardened nipples, his mouth having found a new place to explore on Seth's soft navel. His skilled tongue mapped out the familiar and yet unfamiliar flesh of Seto's body, its contours matching Seth's almost completely. Impatient hands dragged down the pajama pants that Seth wore using Seto's body, exposing a member that showed the betrayal of Seth's mind. Yami smiled and looked into Seth's protesting and shamed eyes, malice gleaming in the crimson depths.  
  
"I wonder if you still respond like you did three thousand years ago inside this body." Yami whispered, his hands leaving Seth's chest to shove Seth's legs apart so that he could move in comfortably between them. "No!" Seth shouted, trying to sit up but only succeeded in bending his waist enough just in time to see Yami close his mouth over his member. A sobbing cry found its way from his throat and Seth fell back onto the pillows, his chest now heaving at the pleasure the hot mouth was giving him. Yes, it was just like three thousand years ago, this smug Pharaoh's skilled mouth. It rolled the tip of Seth's throbbing desire against the sweltering tongue before the same tongue trailed down Seth's length at a torturously slow pace, teeth grazing at the sensitive skin, unforgiving. Seth felt a tug at his lower abdomen, a second sign that his body was going to betray him in the harshest way. He had not wanted this, especially not when he was inside someone else's body!  
  
//"Do you promise that you will give me the honor you gave Mahaado when I die?" a soft, trusting voice whispered in the night as a hand as soft as the voice ghosted across Yami's cheek. A smile came to the young Pharaoh's lips as he placed his hand over the delicately pale hand, nodding in a promise that he would never be able to keep.  
  
Because, Seth.you.//  
  
"Aaahh!" Seth screamed as he came into Yami's mouth, his hips bucking painfully, his arms unable to support himself as his body thrust forward. Yami pulled back to prevent being gagged by the member and the cum at the same time, his eyes glaring down at Seth for the split second before he saw unshed tears inside those drunken blue eyes. "Ah fuck!" he shouted without humor, spitting Seth's cum onto his hands, letting his hands become covered and then he guided his hands down to Seth's entrance, pressing one crudely lubricated finger in. A sob of pain and resistance squeezed from Seth's lips and Yami ignored it, pressing another finger in and stretching the opening, his fingers working in a scissoring motion. The lithe body beneath him writhed and squirmed uncomfortably, this body having never been taken before by anyone. Seth thrashed his head against the pillows, soft brown hair sticking to the gossamer sheet of sweat that formed on his face, mixed with wine and tears. The pain that shot up his spine was pure and raw, centered between his legs and unable to be dissipated due to the fact that he had no control over his hands to grip on something, anything, to keep his mind off of the pain. It was like being skinned without having a bit to bite on. Over his harsh gasps for oxygen, Seth heard something like sloshing of liquid and he screamed when a prickling sensation violated him as Yami's fingers continued their work inside him, adding a third finger. Soon Seth registered the prickling pain to be alcohol-Yami was using the wine as lubricant.  
  
//"You are no longer High Priest.and your body is no longer a temple."//  
  
Seth began to scream, the past memories of another violation not unlike this one crashing into his mind. He struggled to gain control of his hands, of his arms, of any part on this traitor of a body to push Yami away. If this continued, then he had no idea how the other soul would take it.  
  
Seth smelled like the night, Yami noted as he leaned down to claim those trembling lips that were murmuring incoherent words that were almost close to pleading but also laced with curses, threats. Even though the smell of sex was covering him, he still retained the smell of fresh lotus that mingled with the night air on a clear full moon summer night. He wanted Seto so much, and he had wanted Seth so much, but he knew that he had done something wrong in his past life but could not figure out what it was; his mind was too much a blur to connect the holes inside his memories with a thread that did not exist.  
  
//Thin, quivering lips turned a slight shade of dangerous purple as paling hands gripped at Yami's rich purple robes, pulling him down towards a mouth that struggled for breath so that he may speak. Yami leaned down, his ear almost touching those lips as Seth whispered to him. "Please.keep your promise to me." As he spoke, his breaths carried those silky golden bangs on small pants, letting them tickle at his now blackish lips.//  
  
A small, wet sound was heard as Yami slid his fingers out of Seth and positioned himself between those milky white thighs again, quickly throwing off his own clothes. Seth paled at the feeling of flesh, and he prayed that it wasn't the inevitable as he dared to peek his eyes open, becoming aroused against his own will as he saw his sovereign's nakedness. Fear, however, was still his dominant emotion here and Seth felt his teeth chatter as his whole body shook in fear. He made a sound between a croak of protest and a sob as he felt the tip of Yami's erection against his entrance. His body made another futile attempt at escape, fidgeting for a moment before Yami thrust into him, his movement brutal and primal. The scream of pain wretched from Seth's throat rang through the room, almost loud enough to shake the windows, and just as pitiful. Fresh tears spilled from those brilliant blue eyes as Seth wiggled his waist, trying to move away from Yami. Hissing, Yami pulled out only to thrust in again with a force harsher than his first, relishing at the feverish body's heat, at how tight Seth was around him, just like how he remembered him. He felt like he was being violated by Seth's body heat, even though the idea itself was cruelly ironic.  
  
What the hell am I doing?  
  
"Stop it! Stop it stop it." Seth shrieked, his words almost a mantra as he writhed. Yami growled, his mind so drunk on pleasure, annoyance, and alcohol that he ignored the screams and gripped Seth's waist with such strength that Seth was sure he would have snapped something if he were any bigger. "I should have done this," Yami whispered as he embraced Seth's thin waist, his body rocking against Seth's. "I should have done this that night, held you tightly within my arms, when you were suffering instead of what I did wrong." His heated words washed over Seth's skin, adding heat to the already hot flesh. Yami spoke these words without even knowing exactly what he meant by them. Soon the former Pharaoh developed a rhythm as he pounded into Seth's body, his eyes squeezed shut from anguish and pleasure at the same time, his thrusts wringing cries of pain from Seth until the man's mind snapped and his voice was so cracked that nothing but moans of unwanted pleasure rolled from his mouth. At the sound of the moans, Yami angled himself, recalling that one spot that drove Seth mad when he took him inside his royal chambers three thousand years ago.  
  
"AAAHHHHH!"  
  
He had remembered right. The spot that he hit drove Seth over the edge and he spilled his seed over their stomachs as he threw his head back in an animalistic roar, his blue eyes seeing a burst of white light and then something that looked like the static on a television without a signal.  
  
The room seemed to suddenly disappear and Seth felt as though he had dove into a sea, surrounded by heat of empty pleasure and coldness filling his heart. At the bottom of the ocean there was a mirror and he found himself drifting towards it. When he touched it, he found himself looking at Seto, the owner of this body that was getting violated by the man he had loved three thousand years ago. "I'm sorry," Seth whispered, knowing there was not forgiveness to be expected. His reflection's eyes narrowed and Seth pressed his hands against the glass that separated the two of them, the window to the room that Seto was locked in within the body whenever Seth took over. "Maybe it's more painful this way, but I still want to." His purpose was obscured by a sudden rush of water that signaled a disturbance in Seth and Seto's emotions, and Seto narrowed his eyes as he strained to hear what Seth was saying, but the man continued without intent on repeating. ".but it seems that I do not have time anymore." Seth murmured, his breath creating little clouds on the surface of the window despite the fact that he was still in the mental ocean. "I'm giving it all to you," Seth said to Seto as the boy regarded him with a slight look of shock. "My memories, my emotions.please, take it and." Before he finished his request to Seto, Seth applied pressure on the glass and broke the barrier, letting his hands become embedded with pieces of glass as he reached across the barrier and gripped at Seto's hands, fingers intertwining. He pressed his warm forehead against Seto's and closed his eyes. "Good luck." Water rushed into Seto's room on his side of the barrier and the youth felt like he was drowning, the darkness swallowing him and he struggled to open his eyes.  
  
Seto opened his eyes to find tears inside them and he looked up to see Yami's face, and he felt intense pain as the face jolted slightly forward, Yami's body shoving in him again. His eyes cleared and he gasped for breath, his throat feeling raw and dry as he lolled his head to look into Yami's crimson eyes.  
  
"Yami." he managed with his cracked voice. At the sound of the voice, Yami's gaze bore into Seto's clear blue eyes, noting that they were not glazed over as they were a moment ago. "Seto." Yami said, his tone not a question as he felt the presence of Seth disappear, though not entirely. It seemed more like the two spirits fused together, with Seto as the dominant side. His hand touched Seto's cheek and Seto's face blurred from the obstructing tears that now filled his crimson eyes.  
  
"Stop." Seto moaned painfully as he felt hot tears drop onto his cheek.  
  
"You remember me now," Yami whispered. "But how would I know that you will remember me in the morning? Remember all this? I want to imprint my image into your mind.into your memory." He leaned down and pressed a kiss onto Seto's pale neck. Soon the only constant inside the room was the sound harsh breathing, moans, and the sound of the bed frame squeaking, shaking under the movements of the most primal instinct of human nature-lust.  
  
//"Yami.I hate you."  
  
Hot sun beat down on the noon-time desert, though it felt cooler next to the cliff that overlooked the ocean beneath. Yami looked at Seth as the man stood next to the red skeletal structure that he had built, a sneer across his pretty pale features. "I hate you so much I can kill you." Seth said, his voice ringing phenomenally louder than the ocean waves beneath them. Yami edged towards Seth, but before he reached Seth, he felt a sharp pain thrust through his back and pierce his flesh, puncturing his lung or a heart-most likely the latter. A flash of silver was followed by a small glint of gold as Yami looked down and saw a silver blade protruding from his chest, the chain of his cartouche pendant broken by its sharpness. The pendant had fallen onto the ground, but now it seemed so unimportant to Yami.he looked up at Seth's blue eyes and walked towards him, the blade sliding out of his body as he did so. His bloodied hands gripped at Seth's white cloak as his knees buckled under him, his vision becoming blurry. Raising his head, Yami looked into Seth's blue eyes and spat one word that was dripping with poisonous hatred.  
  
"Traitor."  
  
How I curse you!//  
  
Seto's eyes flew open at the exclamation that rang through his mind and he sat up, his shoulders screaming in pain at the sudden movement. It would seem that after he lost consciousness under Yami, the Egyptian spirit had been kind enough to relocate his arms back into their sockets. Seto shook his head, a headache inflicting his temples and he looked at the lump that slept next to him, not remembering why the spiky-headed King of Games would be sleeping next to him. The mere idea sent Seto's heart thumping from embarrassment.  
  
//"You don't have a heart.that can go thump-a-thump-thump."//  
  
Seto furrowed his brows as he heard that voice inside his head; where had he heard it before? He placed a hand over his heart and felt it beat ferociously.  
  
//"Traitor, you shall now be cursed with eternal life.and anyone who aids you in your death shall receive a punishment seven times more painful than death."//  
  
Seto clutched his head with his slender fingers, his nails digging into his scalp almost hard enough to draw blood at memories came crashing at him.  
  
//"How may I show you my determination so that I may die?"  
  
A pale hand reached up to an exposed chest and fingers dug into the flesh without the help of magic, shocking the amber-eyed deity that stood across from the sorcerer.//  
  
"You fucking bastard!" Seto screamed, shoving Yami from his place on the bed so that the shorter of the two rolled off. At the sound of the exclamation, Maki came rushing into the room, having returned sometime early in the morning. It didn't take her long to figure out what happened between the two and she ran towards a shaken up Yami, grabbing the Egyptian up by his wrist and dragging him out of the room, grabbing a bathrobe that was draped on a chair on the way out, throwing it on him once they were out of earshot to any of the two Kaibas in the house.  
  
"Please explain to me what you were thinking when you hopped into that bed." Maki hissed, her tone dangerous.  
  
"What do you mean, what I was thinking?!" Yami shouted, annoyed at the fact that he had to be shoved off a bed and then dragged around and reprimanded like a child bright and early in the morning.  
  
"You obviously caused him his outburst back there!" Maki exclaimed, pointing down the hall at Kaiba's room. "You're worsening his condition, don't you understand that?"  
  
"Worsened?!" Yami retorted, suddenly sick of seeing Maki's face. "He remembers me, all right?"  
  
"Is that all that matters to you? That he remembers you?" Maki murmured, expression a mix between absolute horror and disappointment. "Don't you know that by forcing these things into his mind, you're crushing his psyche and may make him go insane?"  
  
Yami stopped, taken back, but he still felt angry at Maki. She had been here for months and there was still no progress in Seto's condition. And he had only spent one night to make Seto remember him. He didn't see what was so wrong in what he did. "You've been here for months and nothing happened! You're the psycho-whatever! Why haven't you cured him yet?!"  
  
"Cure?" Maki's eyes widened in anger at the word, seemingly offended beyond reason. "Cure?" She gripped Yami's bathrobe collar and looked into his eyes, her stature demonic. "I'll tell you what people of 'my trade' considering curing people like him. Lobotomy. Is that what you want, to pull apart his brain so that he is existing but not living?" Yami stared at her, defeated, and pulled away. He had been rash, he admitted, and the reality of his rashness hit him full force from what Maki had said.  
  
"I'm sorry," Yami mumbled miserably. "It's just that.I want so much for him to remember."  
  
"I should be the one apologizing," Maki said, "I shouldn't have shouted at you. Why do you want so much for him to remember, anyway?"  
  
"I-ah," Yami started, not sure of how to begin. He was afraid of how Maki would react to his explanation, but something inside him told him that he had nothing to worry about with her. "I was a Pharaoh in my past life...and he was my High Preist.and we were in love. Something went wrong and I want to know what happened, but if he doesn't remember then I can't get anything out of him to make it right." Maki looked at Yami with an unreadable expression and Yami sighed deeply. "See, now you probably think that I'm insane."  
  
"No, not at all," Maki replied, "In fact, this would actually make more sense." With that, she pulled out a cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number. "Naoya?" she said after a few seconds, ignoring the grimace on Yami's face. "Yes, I need you to help me contact Nanjo-kun.he's been doing research on Egyptian Empires in his classes right now, hasn't he? I need to ask him about something." She turned and mouthed the words "how many years ago?" to Yami and Yami put up three fingers, mouthing the words "thousand" as she nodded and turned back to the phone conversation. "Y- yes," she said, "From three thousand years ago. Have him call me, please. Thanks." After bowing to unseeing eyes on the other end, Maki hung up.  
  
"What was that about?" Yami asked, confused.  
  
"I have a friend who's studying about Ancient Egypt in his classes in England," Maki explained. "Maybe if your problems were ever recorded, he'll be able to help."  
  
Naoya set his phone back into its cradle and then looked at the chess board spread out in front of him, picking up one piece and setting it down.  
  
"Nyaralathotep.Crawling Chaos." he whispered, narrowing his eyes. "One who distorts memories."  
  
To be continued.  
  
Yami: Youko. Youko: Yes? Yami: It seems that you've gotten fewer reviews for your last chapter. Youko: Maybe that's a good thing. Yami: What do you mean by that? Youko: *chuckles* That would mean.MORE SLEEP FOR ME!!! That would mean that no one is really anticipating this fic anymore that they've gotten tired of it and now they've given up and I don't have to update that quickly anymore! I don't have to stay up that late typing these things up anymore! Maybe I can even stop this story all at once! HAHAHAAHAHAH!! Well. Maybe not discontinue it completely because someone threatened to skin me alive if I don't continue, but. Yami: *frightened* Naoya: Don't worry; she's always like this when she's hungry. Feed her and she'll go to sleep.  
  
This chapter was written to the CD "200KM/H in the Wrong Lane" by TATU on repeat.their music really fitted to this chapter, in my opinion (especially the track "Show Me Love").  
  
For those who are interested, the name "Nyaralathotep" comes from the Cthultu legends for the creature whose name means "Crawling Chaos." He takes on many forms in different mythologies, but he has the power to distort memories and in turn cause destruction. 


	14. Regardless of Warning

Youko: Okay, it's now official (whether or not I like it).Naoya (whose birthday was on June 6th! Maki's was on June 4th, like Yuugi's.) has become my yami/muse-type person.  
  
Naoya: And as such, I would like to ask you.you had intended for this fic to be updated two weeks after the last update, why did it get updated so late?  
  
Youko: I fell asleep.  
  
Naoya: Go to Hell. *shoots Youko in the head*  
  
Youko: Gyaaa!  
  
Disclaimers: This fic belongs to Youko, the characters of YuGiOh and Persona do not, except within Youko's demented (and now bullet-riddled) mind.  
  
Chapter 14-Regardless of Warnings  
  
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses And all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty. .back together again.  
  
Gently shaking one heavily dressed shoulder, Maki awoke the boy seated next to her, her expression slightly worried. At the slight rattle, Yuugi opened one violet eye and then the other before he lifted his head from where it rested on the window to look at Maki. "We're here," Maki stated plainly as the limo they were riding in pulled to a stop in front of an apartment complex. Yuugi stared upwards in fascination at the large apartment building that was almost as tall as the Kaiba Corporation office building. Sliding out from the limo, Yuugi followed tentatively after Maki while she walked ahead to the glass doors of the building to press an intercom button.  
  
"Nanjo, it's me," she said into the small speaker by the four rows of intercom buttons. Her head was lowered in such a way that she looked almost like an actress pretending to be an old lady with a bad back, Yuugi remarked. But now was not the time to think about what Maki resembled; it's already been months since the mysterious man he met in the convenience store had spoken the cryptic message to him, and Yuugi could feel that he was running out of time. Maki had, thankfully, not told Mokuba about what Yami did to Seto, but the boy had begun to feel that maybe Yami's presence was worsening his brother's condition. After the "incident," Seto now refused to see Yami in any way, shape or form. Only when he is certain that the one who was in control of the body is Yuugi and not his darker half would he allow Yuugi to come into his room, sans the Millennium Puzzle, as though he were afraid that Yami would pop out suddenly. Yuugi didn't blame Seto for his actions and his apprehensive nature against Yami; he would be, too, if something like that had happened to him. But he still wished to help, and he was sure that the key to helping Seto out was somewhere deep within the memories of Yami's maze-like heart.  
  
As he was deliberating these conjectures out, the glass doors leading into the large apartment building swooshed open, granting Maki and Yuugi access. Maki turned around and beckoned Yuugi to follow her, and he trotted after her, his boots making dull thumping sounds on the marble floors as her heels clicked sharply, a mixture of opposites that seemed so out of place in a lobby that was almost completely matching in every way, very much like the way Kaiba's mansion was decorated. Maki led Yuugi into the elevator and, instead of pressing a button; she produced a key from her purse and turned it in a keyhole above all the buttons. Then she waited for the cable box to take them to their destination. Along the way, Yuugi thought about Seto, how he was alone at home, hooked up to an IV once again for he refused to eat, withering away. He didn't speak much to anyone anymore, and his mind seemed to be deteriorating more with each passing day. Sometimes, when it got bad, he couldn't even remember where he was, and so Maki had suggested that they keep him in his room in case he got lost in his own house and started a panic. One thing puzzled Maki, however, and that was the fact that Seto, as much as he distrusted Yami, he seemed to unable to function without Yami within a certain proximity. If Yami were out of the house or if he didn't show up for the whole day and just allowed Yuugi to take control, Seto would sleep as though he were dead for the whole day. This situation pained Yuugi to no end, having to watch his important other half suffer when everything he held dear was so close and yet so far away.  
  
The ding of the bell brought Yuugi out of his stupor, and he looked up to see the elevator doors open before him to a grand penthouse suite that seemed to be placed at the highest floor of the apartment building. There were computers and such scattered around the large living room, and several books and documents covered the glass coffee table at the center of the room. To the side, there was a breakfast table by the window where two teenagers sat. One seemed as though he were sleeping, his face buried within his folded arms on the table, and the other watched him. Yuugi noted that one of the boys was someone that Maki had briefly introduced to him at the summer festival. As Yuugi turned his head this way and that, allowing his eyes to do the exploring, a tall young man approached him and Maki, his face stern. This man had slicked back black hair (a few defiant strands hung from his forehead, however), intelligent yet slightly pompous eyes hidden behind glasses, and an upturned lip that made it look like he was scowling at you. He regarded Maki and Yuugi, and then held out his hand to Yuugi for a handshake.  
  
"Hello," he said. He had a deep voice with a regal yet scholarly note. "My name is Nanjo Kei." His grip on Yuugi's hand was firm, and Yuugi shook it weakly, the whole situation making him uncomfortable. So this was the friend whom Naoya and Maki had found to research about what might happened three thousand years ago with Yami and Seth. Even though Yuugi had met Nanjo once before at the summer festival, Nanjo had such a stern air about him that Yuugi couldn't help but cringe a little at his presence. "So this is the vessel for the Pharaoh's spirit, Maki?" Nanjo asked, turning to face Maki after he released Yuugi's hand. "By the way, Toudo said that he couldn't make it today-something about a whole bunch of patients going in for flu shots."  
  
"Yes, he's the one I told you about," Maki answered, nodding meekly.  
  
"Well, it won't do us much good if the Pharaoh isn't here to listen," Nanjo said in a somewhat reprimanding tone. He turned and went to his piles of papers and books, settling down into a section of the couch that was not covered in documents. "If you will, please tell the Pharaoh to come out." Yuugi hesitated for a moment, but nodded in agreement when Maki gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder much like a mother to her child on the first day of school. He held up the Millennium Puzzle in his hands and allowed himself to sink back into his soul room.  
  
"Nanjo," he acknowledged the name of the man sitting before him. The scholarly-looking man nodded and motioned for Yami to sit down across from him. The feat of sitting, however, was accomplished about a good ten minutes later, after Yami managed to move the stacks of papers and even a small laptop that was buried on the couches. Maki joined him on the couch and moved her own small mountain of books and encyclopedias. As soon as the dust of all the paper settled onto Yami's leather pants as well as his hair, he was ready to listen to what Nanjo had to say.  
  
"I have to say," Nanjo started, "Your past was a hard thing to research about. You were the Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, three thousand years ago. But documents and records about things that happened during that time period are almost non-existent. There was an exhibit at the museum almost a year ago that had two stone tablets from that time period, and one of them had a carving of a Pharaoh who held striking resemblance to you, but his name was scratched out from the tablet. Also, those tablets were only on display for a month or so, and they are now back in Egypt and prohibited to leave the country ever again. Whatever is left of that exhibit in this country is a book that the staff and researchers of the exhibit wrote, but the only copy in our local library has been signed out and I couldn't get my hands on another copy, they were very limited in number."  
  
"Who signed it out?" Maki asked, interrupting and giving Yami some time to catch up to the whole slew of words that Nanjo had said. "Maybe we can get the name and track that person down to get the book-"  
  
"Can't," Nanjo cut her off. "The person signed the book out under the initials T.K. There is no name that we can search under." Hearing that, Maki sighed and sank into the couch, disheartened. Nanjo regarded her with some sympathy and then looked over at Yami. "But that doesn't mean that I've given up," Nanjo continued. "I've called the staff of that said exhibit and asked them to come over and give me some information, and they've agreed. They will be here hopefully in the next day or two. While we're at that, I've asked Jun to come and help us." With that, he jerked his head towards the sleeping teen at the table by the window. The one with the brown hair who had been watching the slumbering teen across from him picked his head up and looked over at Nanjo. With a sigh, the boy with the brown hair shook the youth with the black hair, whom Yami tagged as Jun. A small sleepy groan emitted from Jun and he got up. For a second, Yami couldn't tell whether Jun was a boy or a girl; he had sleek black hair that was cut short, but the bangs covered the right side of Jun's face completely, shielding one eye. And the other eye that Yami could see was red and elegantly angled upwards. His features were sharply contrasting, what with his pale skin, black hair, and red eye, but he also beheld a very unisex softness that made him handsome and pretty at the same time, like a strong goddess or gentle god. Even though Jun smiled at Yami and Maki as he walked over to the couch at the center of the living room, Yami could see a whirlpool of sadness in the one eye that was visible. Just seeing that one eye made Yami wonder about what will happen if he could gaze upon both eyes. The boy behind Jun (whom Yami remembered as "Tatsuya," from what Maki had told Yuugi at the festival) looked even sterner than Nanjo, his face in a constant look of disapproval mixed with concern for Jun. He had brown hair that was neatly cut and very handsome features, but it would certainly help if he smiled a little. The feeling that Tatsuya emitted was very strange, like he was hiding some sort of radiance that would kill if he were to open himself up. The two of them sat down next to Nanjo and Jun bowed to Yami. Yami bowed back by act of reflex, and Jun smiled again, but he still did not speak.  
  
"This is Kashihara Jun," Nanjo introduced, gesturing to Jun. "And this is Suou Tatsuya." The hand moved to Tatsuya, who gave Yami a small scowl, like Yami was doing something very wrong. "Jun here.is someone very much like a fortune-teller or seer. What we're going to do here is try and figure out exactly what went wrong those three thousand years ago and what we're dealing with. It could be a mere virus, but from what Maki has told me about your visions, it seems that it's more than that." Upon finishing his speech, Nanjo put a hand on Jun's shoulder and the boy with a face as beautiful as a goddess stood up, motioning for Yami to follow him to the table by the window. Yami rose from his seat and followed Jun, and then Maki, Nanjo, and Tatsuya tread after him, closing the curtains and blinds on all the windows in the penthouse.  
  
Jun sat down on the chair he was sleeping on when Yami first entered the room, and he gestured for Yami to sit down across from him. Yami obeyed the silent order and sat down, then watched as Tatsuya walked behind Jun.  
  
"He is going to go into a trance," Tatsuya said, his deep, monotonic voice sending chills down Yami's spine. "Because people are not supposed to know what is to happen in the future and keep the past forgotten, he will only bear sins upon his back if he were to tell you things if he were awake." He then lit a candle that Yami had not noticed was on the table and moved it in front of Jun's face. Within seconds, Jun's head hung low, his chin on his chest.  
  
"Pharaoh." Jun whispered. The atmosphere made Yami feel like he was in one of those séances or that he was at the temple of the Oracle in Rome, like the ones he's seen on TV. The whole aura of the room felt slightly wrong, and it made him feel uneasy, much like the emptiness and the bottomless darkness that he was subjected to for three thousand years.  
  
//Three thousand years and it was Seth's fault!//  
  
The sound of a sharp breath being taken brought Yami's attention back to the boy in front of him, who was lolling his head back like a spirit had possessed him. "So," Jun hissed, "Three thousand years and you still haven't figured it out."  
  
"Figure what out?" Yami asked, his mind still doubting this session. It felt more like a prank than anything that will help Seto.  
  
"Your curse is now in motion," Jun answered. "And it will not stop until you have found the will to give up your selfishness."  
  
Yami narrowed his eyes and stared at the boy across from him. What curse? From the visions, he could remember only vaguely about what happened-the unreturned love he had for Seth, and Seth's betrayal.what had happened in- between was all a blur to him, and no matter how much he tried, Yami couldn't seem to remember. The cryptic words that Jun was spitting out now weren't doing much to help, either.  
  
"You're not really helping with the situation," Yami said impatiently. "What curse are you talking about? If you're trying to say that I had cursed him, I would beg to differ. He was poisoned, for gods' sakes! He was going to die and I helped him!"  
  
"A fate worse than death," Jun retorted. "And you're almost out of time- his ka will be enslaved to the man with no face and a thousand faces on the day when blood dances in the wind."  
  
"What?" Yami yelled, getting up from his seat. The words confused him, but for some reason it also made him uneasy-frightened, even. He had heard about this "man with no face and a thousand faces" somewhere, but he couldn't place his finger on it at the moment. "Why?" he asked, "And what is the curse?"  
  
Suddenly, Tatsuya looked towards one window and then quickly bit his own finger and placed it between Jun's lips, letting the seated boy taste his blood. "That's enough," he said, shaking Jun's shoulders, waking him from the trance. Jun's one visible red eye snapped open and he gasped, like a creature just awoken from the crypt. This action nearly made Yami jump up and punch Tatsuya in the face, if not for the fact that Maki and Nanjo had held him down.  
  
"What did you do that for?!" Yami shouted at Tatsuya. "He was about to tell me what was going on and finally shed some light on all this shit!" Tatsuya ignored him and turned to go to the window and looked outside, and Nanjo followed suit. After a slow and awkward silence that hung tightly in the air just waiting to snap, the two of them moved back to the table.  
  
"We can't keep this going," Nanjo said. "Anyway, right now I'm still trying to get my hands on any documents or any photos of the two stone tablets so that we can maybe find some clues on them." His attention then went to the Millennium Puzzle around Yami's neck. "And next time, bring the box that this comes in, we might find something on its inscriptions as well. As of now, we have to find out the details of the curse as well as the way to break it before the 'day the blood dances in the wind'-whenever that is." He sighed deeply and patted Yami on the shoulder. "In the mean time, try to remember what had happened, exactly." Yami nodded and stood up, bowing slowly towards Nanjo and Jun, but not to Tatsuya, who didn't really seem to mind the hostility that Yami had shown him. Maki then lead Yami to the door and gave him a pamphlet which Yami noted was the bus compass for the Sumaru City.  
  
"I have to go to work later," Maki said in an apologetic tone. "So can you go back on your own?" Yami looked at the bus compass and nodded.  
  
"Sure," he answered, taking the pamphlet and stuffing it into his back pocket. "It shouldn't be a problem."  
  
But as soon as Yami left the pent house, he was lost in his own thoughts. Sure, he remembered something about a spell that he had put on Seth three thousand years ago, on that one night when Seth looked as though he was leaking his life out in black. The memory alone frightened him, and Yami felt another presence inside shudder at the mental image.  
  
"Mou hitori no boku," Yuugi called out. "Are you all right?"  
  
"I don't know, Aibou," Yami answered, sighing as he trudged along the pedestrian sidewalk, his hands in his pockets. Even though it was early March, the weather was still cold enough for jackets and scarves, and Yami was almost confused at how people could be expecting spring to be around the corner-he hated the cold. The cold always rang with a certain amount of ambiguity that Yami had to live with for three thousand years, and now it nipped cruelly at him in a mockery of his own cloudy past. He hated not knowing what was going on; at first he was fine with the way things were- when he knew nothing of himself, but now it annoyed him to no end. He felt useless and trapped; if it were just concerning him and his past, Yami was fine with that-but now Seto's health was on the line, and felt utterly useless.  
  
"Remember how I said that I would give you all my memories?" Yuugi said, his voice ringing deep within his soul room. Yami nodded slightly, knowing that his uneasiness was also affecting his aibou. "This is the time when I wished that the most," Yuugi continued. "If my memories could trade for yours to help both you and Seto.I wish I could do that." The warmth of the concern made Yami feel better, like he had just gulped down a mug of hot cider; the tingly spiciness spreading through his veins, making him feel stronger. Yes, it was always Yuugi who was stronger, even now.  
  
"Thank you, Aibou," Yami whispered, smiling. He then looked up and noticed that he had been spacing out for the whole time, ending himself up in a place he did not recognize. "Aibou, I think we're lost." As he said this, a few bread crumbs fell in front of Yami and he turned his head to search for its source.  
  
"Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall," a voice sang. Yami turned and found a bluish black head poking out from the side of a bench, and he approached it. "Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall.all the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty-Dumpty together again."  
  
"Toudo," Yami said, walking up to the young man. He took a close look at this Toudo, who was lying on the bench, feeding bread crumbs to the ducks. This one had gold eyes that shone blue in the setting sun, like blue Curacao in champagne-it was Kazuya, the twin that Yami had met in the convenience store.  
  
"Hey," Kazuya said, waving. He stuffed his gloved hand into the bag of bread crumbs and put some in his mouth, then threw the rest to the ducks. "You look down in the dumps, what's wrong?"  
  
"Feels like everything are going wrong," Yami said, shrugging. Kazuya stretched on the bench and sat up, scooting over so that Yami could sit.  
  
"Want to talk about it? I heard that you were having some troubles with something?" Kazuya asked, his blue eyes turning gold as he cocked his head to look at Yami's face.  
  
"Well," Yami started, "it's like this.I'm having some troubles with my past.you might think I'm crazy, but I used to be the Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt."  
  
"Oh!" Kazuya exclaimed, pointing his finger at Yami. "You mean the one who got assassinated by his High Priest!"  
  
"Assassinated by his.what?" Yami whispered, looking up at Kazuya, his red eyes widening considerably.  
  
"It says so here in this book." Kazuya replied, pulling a book out from his backpack. The book that Nanjo had said was signed out under the initials "T.K."-Toudo Kazuya.  
  
To be continued.  
  
Okay, I had intended for this chapter to be a bit longer, but I decided that what will happen next will not really fit with what has happened in this chapter. This chapter title was inspired by "Simple and Clean" by Utada Hikaru.I had the song on repeat as I typed this chapter out. But the meaning behind it will probably not be evident until later.  
  
Note about what Tatsuya did (biting his finger and letting Jun taste his blood): some Asian fortune tellers and shamans use blood to ward off bad things, and since Jun was in a trance (when a person is in deep sleep-REM- he is closest to death), he needed something alive and from the realm of the living to bring him back out immediately. Therefore, Tatsuya let him taste blood to wake him up and also drive what might have tried to follow Jun back from the realm of the dead away from him.  
  
Sorry about the lack of Seto in this chapter, I got caught up in describing Jun.he's my goddess. ^^;; The next chapter will have lots of Yami and Seto action, though! I promise! And it's most likely that I will try to finish "Distance" completely before I work on more chapters of "Final Distance" after I post up the next chapter of "Final Distance." I am doing this because by the way that FD is progressing, it will eventually give a lot of spoilers to D. I am doing a bad job at pacing these stories, sorry.??Too many paragraphs in this chapter started with dialogue.that annoys me.  
  
It feels like this story has taken a real 180.at first I had just planned it to be a short medical story, but now it's turned into something like a millennia-long curse thing. Geez, I'm not linear.  
  
Naoya: And when are you going to post up the next chapter of Distance?  
  
Youko: I.ah.um.  
  
Naoya: Pathetic.  
  
Youko: Shut up, you fruitcake!! 


End file.
